A recent interview with John Jones, Packers' chief operating officer

With an agreement in place that any cost overruns on the massive $295 million of Lambeau Field in Green Bay would go to the Green Bay Packers or its construction management team, there was tremendous pressure to keep the high-profile project from going into the red.

And as construction crews put the finishing touches on the renovation project in the weeks before the Packer’s first exhibition game on August 23, those efforts have paid off. The project is going to finish on time and within its budget, a rare occurrence for a huge construction project, said Stuart Zadra, project manager for Hammes Co., a Brookfield construction management which is overseeing the project for the Green Bay Packers.

“We’ve had to a lot of things go right on this project,” said John Jones, executive vice president and chief operating officer for the Packers. “We learned to be flexible and look for opportunities to accelerate the project in certain areas. And we’ve been practical. We know we can’t do everything. We’ve had to make choices.”

Zadra said the renovation was “difficult and complicated,” but construction crews were able to overcome the obstacles and complete it on time.

“We have flexible in terms of the way we completed the project because it was not like building an office building or a hotel,” said Zadra, as he walked through the new atrium on the northern end of the stadium recently. “We were renovating a stadium that was still very active. We had people, other than construction crews, in here everyday. And some days, we had more than 60,000 people on our construction site.” In all, 4,200 construction workers went through the project’s safety training program. Zadra said an average of 400 workers were on the site daily, with the peak employment at about 1,200 during the winter and spring of 2002, the most hectic part of the project. Currently, there are about 200 workers on the project as it is about 95 percent complete. On an average day, about $900,000 worth of construction work was completed, with about $20 million being spent a month at the peak of the project.

According to the Packers and the Stadium District overseeing the project, about $87 million, of the first $248 million spent on the project, was paid to Brown County businesses, and $181.9 million to Wisconsin-based business.

The project, one of the largest ever in the state, is being funded with a mix of private and public money. A 0.5 percent in Brown County is being used to pay for the interest and principal on $160 million of the project cost. The rest of the funding came from a one-time user fee on Packer season-ticket holders, proceeds from a Packers’ stock sale and a loan from the National Football League.

It involved increasing the stadium’s capacity from 60,890 to 71,000, including 6,260 new club seats and 167 luxury boxes. A second concourse was added to the new stadium as well as additional restrooms and concession areas. Titletown, a new five-story atrium, will house the Packer Hall of Fame, the Packer Pro Shop and a restaurant.

The renovation, which was started in 2000, was divided into three phases, with the first calling for the construction of the two suites towers on the east and west sides of the stadium, and the erection of the structural frame of the 365,000-square-foot atrium.

The second phase relocated team offices and locker rooms to the new area and completed the reconfiguration of the seating bowl, including the installation of new mechanical systems to run the stadium. And the third phase was the completion of the stadium bowl, installation of two new scoreboards and other work in the north and south end zones. Zadra said the key to getting the project done on time and within budget were the flexibility of the construction crews and the Packers. He said construction managers were continuously looking for ways to speed up the schedule, sometimes at a higher price.

“We knew we had to make tough choice and we were ready to do that,” Jones said. “If we had a list of five things construction crews would like to do, most time we do the top two or three, that ones that will have the most positive impact on the project.”

Zadra and Jones said the project benefited from a number of factors, including a sluggish economy which lowered material prices, three mild winters that allowed crews to accomplish more work than planned and a strong workforce that took a lot of pride in the project.

Jones said throughout the renovated building, construction crews had etched their initials in many nooks and crannies to show their involvement in the project.

“They are in places where no one will ever see them, but the crews will know they are there and that they were part of this project,” he said.

And while the economic downturn hurt many businesses, Jones said it had helped lower the cost of materials. He said the project had received as many as eight bids on steel, compared to two. And nine different people contacted the team asking about the work to build the statues of Vince Lombardi and Curly Lambeau that will stand outside the atrium

On the steel purchases, the bids were not only lower than expected, they were all within the same range, something that is unusual in construction bidding, Zadra said.

“There is no doubt the economy helped this project especially as we went along,” Zadra said. “There were also a lot of construction workers looking for work and wanting to work on this job. Timing is everything and on this project, things have just worked out for the best.”

Zadra said construction crews also worked very closely with the Packers and architects to limit the amount of change orders on the project. While there were some change orders, they were no where the level or for the amount of money that would be expected on a project of this size, he said.

“I think the biggest claim we have out there right now is in the thousands of dollars range,” he said. “Normally on a project like this, you would have some claims in the millions of dollars. We’ve really worked hard to make sure that we understood the project and its challenges.”

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