A Few Facts on the Construction of CenturyLink Stadium

Awarded the concrete package on the new Levi Stadium, which is a joint venture between Turner Construction and Devcon Construction, we brought our previous experience on public arenas.  One of those projects was to provide ancillary concrete structures on the Seattle Seahawks stadium. The CenturyLink (previously known as Seahawks Stadium and Qwest Field) was completed in 2002. 

The architectural firm on the 1,500,000 sq. ft. stadium was Ellerbe Becket, in association with Loschky Marquardt & Nesholm Architects of Seattle.  The Construction Manager was First & Goal.  CenturyLink Stadium has a 67,000 seat capacity with an additional 5,000 seats for special events and 1,400 seats for fans with disabilities.  The facility is 70% covered by a roof and is laid-out with large concourses that easily accommodate the many concession stands and restrooms. 

An interesting fact regarding the building of the new stadium is that the Seahawk’s old Kingdome Stadium was demolished by the largest single concrete structure implosion in the U.S. and set a Guinness World Record.  The event was even covered by ESPN.  Furthermore approximately half of the concrete from the site was recycled and used for the building of the new stadium.

The project presented challenges early-on with soft soil at the site that required the engineering of over 2,200 pilings driven 50 to 70 ft. into the ground to form the base for the foundation.  The CenturyLink has one of the smallest footprints of a newly built NFL stadium but that may be due to being built only a mile from the central downtown business area.  To address the size of the site, the stadium’s upper level is cantilevered over the lower sections.

The multi-use arena is also host to the United Soccer League (USL) Seattle Sounders and the MLS expansion team Seattle Sounders FC.  The field hosted the MLS Cup in 2009 and the 2010 and 2011 finals for the U.S. Open Cup.

For over 50 years, Conco has been providing premium concrete services and is one of the most trusted concrete contractors in Seattle.  Our concrete services include commercial, educational, parking and other construction development as well as public works projects.