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Kansas Athletics, Turner Construction Celebrate Significant Milestone
9/19/2024 3:53:00 PM | Football
LAWRENCE, Kan. – One by one, more than 100 members of the Kansas Football program stopped by David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium on Thursday to sign the final steel beam to be placed in the opening phase of the stadium overhaul.
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And they weren't alone.
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More than 300 members of the Turner Construction team were also on hand to sign the beam and officially celebrate the placement of the final beam – a significant milestone in the timeline of construction of the stadium. With the steel now in place, Jason Brown, a project executive with Turner, said the work will turn to the more aesthetically pleasing part of the project, where the team will start to work on the inside of the stadium and "putting the face" on the stadium with the winter weather approaching.
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The milestone of the final beam being installed comes more than nine months since the start of the Gateway District. There are nearly 11 months remaining before the first phase of the project will be complete and David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium will be ready to host a game on August 23, 2025.
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"I'm astonished by the amount of hours and work that people have put into this in the first 10 months," Brown said. "They have been out in the heat and in the sun, getting ahead of schedule, and I can't thank them enough. All the work they've done with the design team, the University of Kansas and the state of Kansas – it's amazing to see what's been accomplished."
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The beam was put into place after a short private ceremony inside the stadium. Brown, along with Chancellor Douglas Girod, Director of Athletics Travis Goff, Football Coach Lance Leipold, student-athletes Jereme Robinson and Devin Neal and KU Endowment's Dan Martin all spoke to an audience of nearly 500 that included Turner Construction crews, Kansas Athletics donors and staff and members of the Kansas Football program.
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Following the speakers, the final beam was whisked into the sky, craned to the opposite side of the stadium and put in place with cheering from the crowd and the KU Band playing. The beam – on top of the signatures from the football team, Kansas Athletics staff and Turner staff – also proudly displayed a University of Kansas flag, a USA flag and an evergreen tree, which signifies the safe completion of the framing of the structure and a wish for continued good luck for the future of the project.
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Brown said, to this point, there have been 415,000 total man hours put into the project and that there have been 1,500 total workers that have been on site during the construction.
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"Anything of this kind of magnitude, there have to be celebratory, benchmark moments," Goff told reporters after the ceremony. "You have to pause and reflect and certainly acknowledge everyone who has helped make it happen. Today was absolutely a really important day."
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Â
And they weren't alone.
Â
More than 300 members of the Turner Construction team were also on hand to sign the beam and officially celebrate the placement of the final beam – a significant milestone in the timeline of construction of the stadium. With the steel now in place, Jason Brown, a project executive with Turner, said the work will turn to the more aesthetically pleasing part of the project, where the team will start to work on the inside of the stadium and "putting the face" on the stadium with the winter weather approaching.
Â
The milestone of the final beam being installed comes more than nine months since the start of the Gateway District. There are nearly 11 months remaining before the first phase of the project will be complete and David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium will be ready to host a game on August 23, 2025.
Â
"I'm astonished by the amount of hours and work that people have put into this in the first 10 months," Brown said. "They have been out in the heat and in the sun, getting ahead of schedule, and I can't thank them enough. All the work they've done with the design team, the University of Kansas and the state of Kansas – it's amazing to see what's been accomplished."
Â
The beam was put into place after a short private ceremony inside the stadium. Brown, along with Chancellor Douglas Girod, Director of Athletics Travis Goff, Football Coach Lance Leipold, student-athletes Jereme Robinson and Devin Neal and KU Endowment's Dan Martin all spoke to an audience of nearly 500 that included Turner Construction crews, Kansas Athletics donors and staff and members of the Kansas Football program.
Â
Following the speakers, the final beam was whisked into the sky, craned to the opposite side of the stadium and put in place with cheering from the crowd and the KU Band playing. The beam – on top of the signatures from the football team, Kansas Athletics staff and Turner staff – also proudly displayed a University of Kansas flag, a USA flag and an evergreen tree, which signifies the safe completion of the framing of the structure and a wish for continued good luck for the future of the project.
Â
Brown said, to this point, there have been 415,000 total man hours put into the project and that there have been 1,500 total workers that have been on site during the construction.
Â
"Anything of this kind of magnitude, there have to be celebratory, benchmark moments," Goff told reporters after the ceremony. "You have to pause and reflect and certainly acknowledge everyone who has helped make it happen. Today was absolutely a really important day."
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