Great Progress Achieved Thus Far on the 49ers Levi Stadium

The new San Francisco 49ers Levi Stadium construction project is progressing at the fast pace needed in order to meet the approaching August 2014 opening date.  When the Levi was awarded the 2016 NFL Super Bowl game, it required the stadium to be operational for at least two years before the big game.  Hosting the Super Bowl is an honor for the stadium and will be the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the championship game.

Conco was awarded the concrete package for the $1.2 billion project that broke ground in April of 2012.  The new stadium is being built by the construction/design team of Turner Construction and Devon Construction.  Due to the aggressive timeline, construction is being handled differently.  In most cases, stadiums are built like a wedding cake with one tier on top of another.  For the new Levi, the stadium was divided into four sections and each section is concurrently being constructed as separate projects. 

Conco had to jump right into the project with the enormous task of excavating 60,000 yards of dirt, reinforce and pump 18,000 cubic yards of concrete, backfill and build a half-mile of perimeter wall – all in 40 calendar days.  According to an article in the Concrete Pumping, Fall 2013 publication, the design specifications “made the level of difficulty extremely high for what is the largest structural steel building under construction in the U.S.”  To demonstrate how large the project is, the foundation took twenty-three semi truckloads of anchor bolts to complete.  Crews worked basically day and night starting at 5 a.m. and finished up at 1 a.m. 

Concrete pumping was constant throughout the construction of the foundation and was skillfully accomplished with the help of Conco’s recently acquired, Schwing S 58 SX boom trucks, equipped with a 188-foot reach and easy set-up.  The Schwing KVM 52 and S 47 SX were also utilized.  The foundation portion was done as a series of smaller pours rather than a large slab pour.  On a typically day, 500 yards of concrete were pumped with most of the concrete a standard 4,000 psi mix, and 8,000 psi at shear lugs.  

The Schwing 58 meter boom trucks were a valuable asset on the project.   Pumps were located both inside and outside the structure and the narrow-front spread and curved outriggers provided the crew the ability to shoot around any obstacles that were in the way.  There were times that a pump ran almost 24 hours a day with one operator quickly replacing the prior operator to start pumping again.  Conco successfully met the Phase 1 foundation deadline in July 2012.  The whole team pulled together for the difficult project and has done an excellent job!       

Conco is a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western United States. We got our start in the San Francisco area in 1959 by offering clients the best value on a wide range of concrete services and products.  Since that time, we have steadily taken a leading role as one of the Bay Area’s top concrete contractors. Our concrete services include commercial, educational, parking and other construction development as well as public works projects and highways.