• Gary Said:

Correct. Item 3A of the board meeting at the 2 minute mark details there were 220 bids for the project.

http://allenisd.swagit.com/player.php?refid=072220...

I'm disappointed that a project of this magnitude only received two bids and I'm now beginning to think that people steer clear because they 'know' who will get the bid.

Gary, since you were on the board at the time maybe you can tell me how many bids you received for the stadium and explain why the district made the decision to choose Pogue, someone who had never constructed a stadium.

I don't think anyone wants to ignore the "facts." We don't yet know what the facts are. Not directed to anyone in particular - you can interpolate a conspiracy to dupe the public if you want. Sensationalizing this is embarrassing to our community. It's possible to be involved, look over the shoulder of our elected officials, and kick them to the curb if they aren't working in the community's best interest without throwing around assumptions of cronyism and indifference to the safety of our kids.

Sitting back, blindly believing and trusting the process got us a cracked-up, unusable, 60 million dollar stadium.

Let's not question it now, and just apply more of that to the repair.

Makes perfect sense.

pup - Not asking anyone to sit back and blindly believe. Questions should be asked but we do need a made for TV congressional hearing. Those don't really accomplish anything - they just allow people to score political points.

Gary, since you were on the board at the time maybe you can tell me how many bids you received for the stadium and explain why the district made the decision to choose Pogue, someone who had never constructed a stadium.

In some spots, the cracks are three-quarters of an inch wide, and officials with the Allen Independent School District say they’re getting worse.

"The cracking has decreased the service life of the structure and potentially decreased its structural capacity," the report states.

District officials ordered an engineering investigation of the cracking in the concourse level and other potential problems in the structure.

The designer of the facility, PBK Architects, and the builder, Pogue Construction, have been notified and are in discussion with district officials about the issues.

An email from Nicholas to the board on Feb. 7 obtained through an open records request by The Dallas Morning News said, “The demand letter from our attorney was sent to both companies and they were given 30 days to respond.”

Ben Pogue, president and CEO of Pogue Construction, has said his firm is working with the district to address problems, although he did not say what he thought caused them.

He said he was optimistic next season’s games could go on as planned. But school district officials say it is possible the stadium will remain closed next school year because Nelson won’t finish its full review until June.

Allen officials said at the time that the stadium would be an economic boon by attracting high-profile events, such as the Texas vs. The Nation All Star Game held last year. Rental fees for school-related, UIL playoffs ranged from $4,000 to $5,000 plus 20 percent of gross gate sales, according to the district.

However, at the time of this statement, Pogue does not know what will be considered an appropriate remedy or which, if any, person or entity may be responsible for the alleged condition(s).

That being said, Pogue has repeatedly indicated in the past to Allen ISD representatives,and now confirms for the public, that Pogue will comply with its contractual and warranty
obligations...

I like what one of the football team members said - that the team wins championships and not the stadium.

Allen ISD facilities personnel noticed cracks in the concourse level of the stadium. They monitored and when the cracks appeared a sif they might not be normal, they called in an engineering firm to do a further study. The Board received a PRELIMINARY report at a Monday evening workshop in February.

The report said "The cracking has decreased the service life of the structure and POTENTIALLY (emphasis mine) decreased its structural capacity."

Based on that report, the district "out of an abundance of caution" closed the stadium until the engineer's assessment is complete - probably in June. The press conference was Thursday of the same week that the Board received the report. So the date on the cover page of the report is Jan 15. The Board saw it early Feb and closed the stadium the same week.

There is precious little time for a leak in there and no time at all for an elaborate coverup. One typically doesn't go out and hire a consultant to assess damage one is trying to cover up.

So the first thing really is to complete an assessment of the nature and extent of the damage. I had a interesting conversation with my brother this week, who is a civil enginner (which I tell him is an oxymoron - LOL). He explained that concrete is brittle and has no elasticity at all. You bend it, it cracks. (I actually already knew that much.) So a structure is designed with interior and substructure steel to support the concrete and, as the concrete cracks, the load transfers to the steel. The steel doesn't effectively take on the load until the concrete begins to crack.

So, if the concrete is just cracked, that is normal. If there is spalling or if the cracks grow over time, that could be structural - meaning the concrete cracked, transferred the load to the steel, and the steel structure was not strong enough to carry the load.

This is particularly an issue with a suspended concrete structure which is bound to flex when in use.

So, this morning, driving from the hotel to the building where I am working this week, I paid attention to all the concrete overpasses. (I am in Houston - I had lots of cycles of the light each time to observe the overpass ahead - rolls eyes.) Sure enough, every single one of them had vertical cracks. Some of these overpasses have been there for quite some time. There was not a lot of separation on the cracks. But there they were with hundreds of thousands of car crossings each week and apparently deemed structurally sound.

This puts the notion of "normal" and "abnormal cracking" into a little better context for me.

Now, with everyone rushing to string up Pogue by the toes, I don't see anyone here talking about the architect - PBK - a firm which HAS designed and overseen the construction of a number of stadiums and arenas. It is the responsibility of the architect to spec out every tiny detail of a construction project - figuring weight and loads and stresses, how much steel, at what spacing and tensile strength, what psi strength for the concrete, etc. etc. etc.

If Pogue put in fabulous concrete and built all the steel structures precisely according to spec but the steel substructure was underdesigned then one would still have abnormal cracking and a major structural problem to fix. And PBK would own it - not Pogue. Right now - NO ONE KNOWS. I wonder if, when all is said and done, there will be a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B.

The important things to me are these:

1) The district noticed a potential issue and is doing everything possible to run it to ground.
2) While the structural integrity of the facility is being evaluated, it is closed.
3) The district - including and especially the new superintendent - is committed to a net zero to the taxpayers.

That said, I personally live in the real world and I recognize the district may have to front some of the costs of interim facilities, lost revenues, and even temporary repairs until the final causes are determined. In Local Realtor's example, if I can't live in my house through no fault of my own, I am not going to leave my family on the street. I'll get them into a hotel at my own expense and recoup those dollars in the final settlement.

Gary,

Since you were part of the decision making process, why did you feel that it was appropriate to award the single largest high school athletic project in history to a company with no experience in stadium construction. Was that concern raised and addressed during the bid decision process? That seems like an easy question to answer without waiting on reports.