Nov. 30, 2005
The Bowl Games and the Hawkeyes
- The 2006 Outback Bowl
- The 2005 MasterCard Alamo Bowl
- The 2005 Vitalis Sun Bowl
- The 2005 Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl
- The 2005 Motor City Bowl
More Hawkeye Football
- Game-Day Parking and Road Construction Information
- 2005 Hawkeye Huddles
- Follow the Renovation of Kinnick!
- The Schedule: 2005 and Beyond
- Listen to the Hawkeyes on XM Radio
- Watch and Listen to Kirk, the Hawkeyes
The final stage of the University of Iowa’s $86.5 million Kinnick Stadium renovation project will begin Saturday, Dec. 3 with the demolition of the old press box.
Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI), of Phoenix, Maryland, through a UI contract with Selzer Werderitsch Associates and Peterson Construction Inc., will bring down the old press box sometime after 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Preparations for the demolition began several weeks ago. The demolition will take only a few seconds, says Jane Meyer, senior associate athletics director.
“CDI will use small steel-severing charges to undercut the steel structure holding the press box up, and the whole thing will lie down in the parking lot behind the stadium,” Meyer says.
The chosen method will be far safer and take much less time than sending workers up into the structure to take it apart, Meyer says. “And there will be much less noise from this quick demolition method than weeks of hammering, cutting, and drilling would produce.”
The demolition will not be an event for spectators because there are no safe vantage points from which to view the demolition. The University encourages the public not to attend. A video, to be taken by a camera located at the western edge of the secure area, will be available for viewing after the event at http://www.hawkeyesports.com, the official web site of the Iowa Hawkeyes. The video also will be made available to media.
“Regulations require clearing a large area around the west side of the stadium, and because of the topography and other buildings in the way, there just won’t be any good place to stand,” Meyer says.
With no bricks and mortar and no implosion of the structure, there will not be the kind of dust and scattered debris produced by the more spectacular recent demolition of the dormitories at Iowa State University, also conducted by CDI.
A section of Melrose Avenue near the stadium will be closed for a brief period beginning around 8:30 a.m. for the demolition, and only emergency vehicles will be allowed to pass. Pedestrian traffic near the stadium will be restricted for several hours prior to the demolition and the University Recreation Building will be closed until 10 a.m. University parking lots in the area will be cleared of cars beginning Friday evening; permit holders will be notified in advance.
Fans of the Iowa football program and the University of Iowa can follow the renovation of historic Kinnick Stadium online at HERE.