Friday, September 01, 2000

“I built that stadium”

---

Paul Brown construction workers proud of being part of “something that was gonna stand out”

By John Johnston
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        For 10 months he toiled in the massive steel and concrete bowl taking shape as Paul Brown Stadium. And the funny thing is, the place never seemed all that big to carpenter Dave Corman.

        It occupies 1.85 million square feet of enclosed space, the equivalent of 32 football fields. But it somehow seemed smaller to the 30-year-old Harrison man as he drilled 40,000 holes for club-level seats. And as he wore out three sets of knee pads.

Dave Corman of Wedding Construction drilled 40,000 holes while installing seats at Paul Brown Stadium. (Gary Landers photos) | ZOOM |

        He was one of about 1,200 workers getting the stadium “football ready” in the days leading up to Aug. 19, the Bengals first home preseason game. Along with 56,180 fans, he was there that night, ready to repair seats if the need arose — it didn't — and taking it all in.

        “I think the best feeling ... was when the Bengals scored their first touchdown, hearing the crowd go crazy,” he says, sitting in the quiet bowl one day this week. “I mean, this place just rocked. (The stadium) seemed huge at that point.”

        Unlike pro football players, blue-collar construction workers don't hear applause for a job well done. What many of them have heard in recent months is people grumbling about the $453.2 million stadium's cost overruns.

        But that doesn't diminish the sense of pride and accomplishment they feel, as was evident this week when a reporter visited the stadium with four men who devoted considerable time to the project. A second public open house is scheduled for today, and workers get to show it off to their families Saturday.

        “This is my top job, here,” says Mr. Corman, who has worked on Cincinnati's downtown library expansion, the ATP Tennis Center in Mason and other large projects.

        “Every time I drive down I-75 (from Northern Kentucky, into Cincinnati), I'll know: I worked on that, I built that stadium,” says Lance Cyr, a 48-year-old ironworker from Dayton, Ohio. He has just a few days' work left at Paul Brown, after a year on the site with Ben Hur Construction.

        “Ah, it's pretty. It's a pretty stadium,” says 37-year-old ironworker Larry Bills of Mount Orab, who completed his stadium work with Southern Ohio Fabricators in June. “It's probably the only job I ever brought my family down to (see).” He, his wife and daughter attended an open house last month.

        Mr. Bills couldn't give them an up-close look at the work he'd done, because nobody was allowed to go that high. He spent considerable time in the upper-most reaches of the bowl, connecting girders that support the arching canopy, and welding on a catwalk.

        “Connecting (the steel) was something, that was a trip,” he says, peering at the framework on the stadium's upper deck. “There was no certain way to hook it up. You couldn't get into a pattern like on a (conventional) building, where you get a system going and you know which beam goes where.

        “It wasn't just another building, like hundreds of them. You were working on something that was gonna stand out.”

        Mr. Cyr agrees. “The upper steel, the top canopies, that was quite an opportunity to excel. We fought with that (steel) for a long time. The amazing thing is ... we had very few accidents and no major (injuries).”

        Knowing that Paul Brown Stadium will be a landmark for years makes it special, the workers say.

Lance Cyr helped install supports for the top canopies and assemble the steel inside the scoreboards. (Gary Landers photo) | ZOOM |

        Ernie Gamble of Florence arrived on site in August 1998 when “it was nothin' but a mudhole.” In two years, Mr. Gamble, a 52-year-old carpenter for Baker Concrete Construction, saw the stadium rise out of that mud.

        “This was a terrific job. A lot of jobs this size, things get overlooked. (But) everything was done by the book,” he says. “If I had it to do over again, I'd go back in a heartbeat. You had nothing to start with, and look what you got now.”

        For much of the job, Mr. Gamble was assigned to safety duty — he built temporary handrails around the inside and outside perimeters. The handrails are gone now, of course, but he'll proudly show off the stadium to his wife and children at a Saturday open house that is just for construction workers and their families.

        A free open house for the public is from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. today.

        Now that Mr. Corman's days of drilling holes on his knees are done, he has taken some time off. This day, he's dressed in clean coveralls and a cap with the insignia “Carpenters of Southwest Ohio.”

        “The last month, we worked straight through, non-stop, 12-hour days. It took its toll, but it was worth it. The knees have recovered. The back doesn't hurt anymore. The first two days after we stopped working, I just laid on the couch.”

        He's a third-generation carpenter — his grandfather helped build Cinergy Field — and construction is in his blood. Same for the others. Mr. Gamble worked on Cinergy Field as an apprentice. Mr. Cyr is a third-generation ironworker. Mr. Bills followed his father into the trade.

        They know a job like Paul Brown Stadium doesn't come along often.

        Mr. Cyr knew he wanted to work on the bowl when he saw the huge cranes scattered about. “I'd drive by and my mouth would start to water and I'd start to drool, and I'd say, I've gotta go there. That's when you guys were coming out of the ground with concrete,” he says to Mr. Gamble.

        Mr. Cyr started on the job in June 1999. He's a sturdy fellow, with tanned arms and a graying pony tail flowing from under his hard hat.

        He says he's proud of his co-workers, “and not only ironworkers, the entire cast of crews. The camaraderie on this job was really good. You didn't have the moanin' and groanin' you get on a lot of projects. Ironworkers got along with laborers; laborers got along with carpenters. It was fun to go to work.”

        But as his last days on the job approach, don't expect him to get sentimental. He's an ironworker, after all.

        “The best job you got,” he says, “is the next one you're going to.”

       

---

Cop dragged to death
Householder had other alcohol offenses
6-year-old drowns in closed pool
XU to build 273-unit apartments
Corbett pledge for arts school campus: $2.6 million
Councilmen: Jet firm overreacts
Holiday patrols on full alert
Former minister denies swindling his investors
Summer heat late, but it had to come
Blood donors needed
Bush defends health-care record
Cincinnati police union wants city to preserve promotion-test results
Education Notes
Educator wins severance fight
Hamilton police to honor officer who saved woman
He got the area soccer ball rolling
Humane group lobbies county
“I built that stadium”
Mobile home residents can stay
Project could spell relief
Reading to update residents on school delay
Suspect indicted in rape, slaying
Teachers reduce demand for raise
Trustees want lawsuit dismissed
UK president search panel finishes tour
Get to it
In the schools
Kentucky News Briefs
Pig Parade: Porker's Wild
Tristate A.M. Report