Miller Park Opening Delayed a Year Due to Construction Accident

The construction accident that took the lives of three construction workers and caused considerable structural damage at Miller Park, the Milwaukee Brewers' new baseball stadium, will delay the opening of the facility until April 2001. The ballpark was originally slated to open with the Brewers' first home game in April 2000.

The 13-member board overseeing the stadium's construction voted unanimously Monday morning to delay the project's completion. The project's lead contractor, Huber, Hunt & Nichols (HHN), said it supported a full-year delay.

The delays stem from an accident on July 14, when a 567-foot crane collapsed while lifting a 400-ton section of the stadium's retractable roof. Stadium officials estimate the resulting damage could cost between $50 million and $75 million.

"I understand this may disappoint many people," stadium board chairman Robert Trunzo said of the vote to delay the park's opening. "Frankly, the 13 people on this board are disappointed as well. But we will not compromise safety."

Robert Decker, a vice president for HHN, said a 2000 opening was not possible because the manpower and materials needed for the job could not be pulled together that quickly. Decker said the accident cost the project almost 1 million worker hours. It is estimated that finishing the project will require a total of 2.8 million worker hours. In order to open the stadium following the All-Star break in 2000, the project would have required 1,200 workers putting in 58-hour work weeks. There were fewer than 900 workers on the project at the time of the accident.

The Associated Press reported that the stadium board's executive director Michael Duckett said board members could not find 1,200 workers or have them all work safely at the same time. "It was very difficult to accept," Duckett said. "We tried exhaustive ways to change the answer, and it just couldn't be done."

Brewers' officials resigned themselves last week to opening another season in County Stadium.
The team expects to double its revenue in its first year in Miller Park with the addition of luxury seating and the attraction of the new ballpark, complete with retractable roof.