Blackhawk stadium taking shape
The sun beat down upon the men and a lone woman building the aluminum bleachers for the new Pea Ridge Blackhawks stadium.
A crew of men with a crane worked unceasingly, preparing the crane to move the pre-constructed press box into its spot high above the bleachers. The preparation took far longer than the actual move. First, the outrigging had to be set to stabilize the crane. Counterweights were lifted off a trailer onto the crane to balance it when it began to lift the load of the building. Yellow I-beams were lifted, arranged, and then straps were connected to them as they were raised above the building to be raised.
Bobby Welsh, project superintendent, watched it all and occasionally answered questions or responded to someone from one of the many workers on site.
“Every strap, every piece of equipment on the crane has to be inspected every time it’s used,” Welsh explained.
“The rain hurt us, but we’ll be ready in time for the first ball game,” Welsh said. “We’ve been working 12-hour days.”
Neal Williams, a truck driver from Hattiesburg, Miss., was one of two drivers with Bouie River Trucking who brought the press box, an 11-feet wide by 50-feet long building, from Alabama. He said he drove the truck escorting the over-sized load along the winding roads through Arkansas up to Pea Ridge.
While crews worked on bleachers and the press box, other crews built one of the ticket booths and a driver circled the track smoothing and placing grit.
The field was leveled so that water will run off the field through the filter fabric into the French drain which encircles the field and lies between the field and the track. Sand pits at either end of the field serve as landing areas for broad jump. Nearby are spaces for high jump and other track events.
Welsh, a construction superintendent for nine years, began as a construction worker, even digging ditches.
“Things are different today than they were the way I was treated back in ’91,” Welsh said. “I interact with the guys. I believe you show them you’re not more important than them.
“It takes everybody. You treat everybody with respect,” he said.
As project superintendent, all crews answer to him and he has to be sure every piece is on time to avoid keeping anyone waiting when the next piece of the project is ready to be placed.
The stadium is expected to be finished in time for football season. The visitors’ bleachers will seat 600 people.