ALLEN – Piece by piece, workers put together the graduation floor on the field at Allen's Eagle Stadium Tuesday.
It's a floor that 1,403 seniors will walk on for graduation on Friday. Piece by piece is also how work got done to finish one of the biggest rehabilitation projects in Texas.
"We're back in business here at Eagle Stadium," said Allen ISD Superintendent Lance Hindt. He commended the efforts of all parties involved in a press conference.
The $60 million, 18,000-seat stadium has been closed since February of 2014 after major structural issues were identified.
It took seven phases of construction over 10 months and handshake agreements between Pogue Construction, PBK Architects, the district to get the repairs done.
Surprisingly, there was no litigation to iron out any differences.
"We are thankful to Pogue and PBK Architects for honoring their commitments to Allen ISD," said Louise Master, president of the Allen ISD Board of Trustees.
Hindt took media on a tour of what's been fixed; from lateral supports at all stadium corners, to scoreboard reinforcements, to steel X braces from the ground level to the press box.
"What really matters in this case is that they get the stadium that they paid for originally... [what] the taxpayers passed in the bond, and that's what they have now," said Ben Pogue of Pogue Construction.
Both Pogue and PBK have already invested at least $10 million on the fix and paid out $2.5 million to the district for lost revenue. Hindt tells News 8 new structural reinforcements can now withstand a wind shear of at least 90 miles per hour -- a relevant point, considering our recent run-ins with spring tornadoes.
"Me, personally, if one hits Allen -- I'm coming to the stadium," Hindt joked.
The largest graduating class in Texas will walk the floor on Friday.
Not to diminish the hard work and accomplishments of 1,403 graduating seniors, but the biggest graduate on Friday maybe the stadium itself.
