BANGOR, Maine — Consider the new arena officially “topped off.”
Steelworkers with Brewer-based Arc Erecting fixed the final important structural beam in place at noon Friday, a little more than nine months after ground broke on the project.
The subcontractor’s topping-off ceremony was a far cry from the one Cianbro Corp. held on April 18. About 150 people, including city officials, attended that event, during which workers hoisted a white beam into place at the auditorium superstructure’s highest point.
Work on other parts of the building has continued for the past month, and Friday’s topping off ceremony recognized the placement of the final major piece of the arena’s skeleton, Arc Erecting President Jeffrey Mitchell said.
About 20 Arc Erecting employees looked on as a crane lowered the project’s final beam into place after signing their names to the piece of steel.
An American flag, evergreen tree and banner carrying the name “Local 7,” the steelworkers’ union, accompanied the beam to its final position.
Mitchell said the tree symbolizes year-round prosperity and serves as a “blessing” for the new building.
Mitchell said “99.9 percent of the iron is up,” and that “detail work” is all that remains on the project.
Stephanie Butler, Arc Erecting operations manager, said no workers have been injured during construction, which has proceeded ahead of schedule.
1) The pictures say the ceremony happened on Saturday (no specific Saturday) while the story says it happened today (5/18). 2) The beam placed at the previous ceremony certainly isn’t the “Auditorium superstructure’s highest point”. In the bottom picture the roof structure can easily be seen looming above the beam described and placed during the first ceremony.
Inquiring minds want to know if there is to be another ceremony?
Ssh. The Bangor Daily is partaking in an alternate reality experiment…
The last beam was placed today.
You can watch arena video updates at http://bangorinfo.com/Focus/arena-progress-videos.htm. There is also a link to photo updates.
Thanks RT
Thanks for all the regular footage Ryan. I’ve enjoyed watching it and it keeps everyone up to date. Nice job!
Just think of it as watching one of the Late Night TV Show’s. They tape at 4:30 and air towards midnight of the next day.
The best part of this story is that the company is owned by a Brewer boy. Very impressive.
Wait, today is Saturday?
Is there anyone even left on the copy desk?
By the way, the other beam is not even close to being the “highest point,” as it sits about six feet below the arena roof, which is about 10 feet below the top of the clock tower.
Copy Desk has been empty for quite some time now….
No lets be honest ,the first one was just Cianbro trying to grab the spotlight they knew was coming ,you cant have a topping off without hanging the final piece ,they subcontracted it out to Jeff who uses Local 7 of Boston, using all local area men, because these guys are professionals and lowest bidders its what they specialize in ,they dont go from using a shovel one day to hanging iron the next and Jeff is as fine a person as you will find,finally CAN THE BDN GET IT RIGHT FOR ONCE ???THEY ARE IRONWORKERS not steelworkers they work in Pittsburgh ,these guys work the field not FACTORIES!!!! SHEESH!!!
Just one more piece of Arena hype
What is the alternative to the new Arena?
the current one which uses multi thousands of gallons of oil per week in the winter during use !
Exactly, this arena should have built 10 years ago.
The current auditorium was switched over to natural gas this past fall.
Sure switch to another energy source but do nothing to improve the energy efficiency of the building itself. That is sort of like deciding to heat a barn and not adding insulation to the walls, roof, etc…Just because it has changed doesn’ mean the building is more energy efficient.
The decision was made after they had decided to go ahead with the new area. It was still cost effective to switch over (even for the short amount of time the auditorium would be standing), and is still saving Bangor money.
It does not use oil any more, it uses natural gas… But still quite a lot of fuel
Hype: to publicize extravagantly – a nonevent made to appear as newsworthy.
I think the event was put on by the owner of ARC to honor his crew who did the job. They are a part of Bangor history. I’m sure he did it for them. They did one hell of job. If you froze your butt out there all winter it would not be hype to you. Everyone is crying all the time about people who don’t want to work. Well, here you go -20 hard working guys. Why don’t you walk over to 20 IRON WORKERS and tell them to their faces it’s all hype.
actually its done on every large structural erection job been doing it for a 100 years, ps their Ironworkers ,steelworkers are in Pittsburgh in the factory,but your right its nasty in the winter its very cold sitting on that stuff,usually sit on a piece of burlap , makes a big difference.summer your burning up. some of the most rugged men ever do that ,very rough on the body.some of them can pick up one of their co workers@200 lbs, with one hand.seen it happen just for kicks.
The placement of the last piece of structural steel is indeed newsworthy, as it represents one of many milestones in this project, the others being the groundbreaking, the erection of the first steel supports, the roof trusses, etc.
So when do taxes go up, oh hold on there not, this is all funded by hollywood casino NOT
The 1% from the racino could have been used to lower taxes in Bangor. Now they are thinking of having a trash bag fee.. Renters will throw their garbage out back rather then pay a fee. also a driveway fee coming really soon 2013. less then a year away. Oh did the TIF funds pay to remove the sculpure and fill the hole with cement in downtown Bangor. Probably not, because its going towards the Arena. So yes it will cost taxpayers
ya lets wait until the old one falls down before its replaced ,ps you cant rebuild a timex and you cant make a silk purse out of a sows ear.
You are probably right about saving us a few tax dollars, but it was US (the citizens of Bangor) that wanted them to use that money to build a new arena or auditorium to replace the current one which we all know needs to be replaced. That is why the council years ago earmarked that money for just that. Because WE told them to. There have been a few times that the council wanted to dip into that money, and they did not because they were reminded that WE said we wanted a new building. Then we had a new vote about this whole thing all over again. What did it show? It show WE were still very much in favor of going ahead with it. So here it is… taking shape and around a year from completion. Now you and others complain… No surprise… You cannot make everyone happy… I am one of those people that are glad that they followed through with what we asked them to do… I just wish they did not back down on the size. They should have gone for 2,000 – 4,000 more seats, and a few other things. They should have learned from the past. They cut back on features in the current Auditorium, and regretted it from day one. Now they have done it again because they got scared by nay sayers. Will we regret it all over again? Time will tell.
I thought it was a little small also. I heard it called the mini arena. The truth would have be good I don’t understand why politicans find a need not to tell the whole truth about things.
I was told by a very reliable source that even at the size we see constructed over 40 major events a year were needed to make it pay for itself. Hence, no ice, no additional 2 to 4000 seats.
Arenas can NOT pay for themselves without a full time tenant, e.g. professional hockey/basketball. Since Bangor is not going to see such an organization come forward we are going to see an arena that runs an operational deficit. Let’s pray the gaming 1% maintains its current level or we may even see a need for an allocation of general fund revenues to cover the debt service.
Had the state ended up with 4 or 5 Casinos, Bangor would have been in some trouble. You may be right, let’s all hope that the new building attracts events that wanted nothing to do with the old building.
the ice isnt important they can still do ice shows ,the big boys “bring their own ice surfaces now”
There are plenty of youth hockey teams who would love to be able to have more ice time at reasonable hours.
The ballot boxes were never locked. I asked one of the box watcher where the locks were as he lifted the cover, I laughed. why is it state law to have locked boxes when bangor doesn’t abide by the laws anyway.. And americans scream about 3rd world countries having honest elections.
it passed by like 2 or 3 t0 one ,the people spoke loud and clear
I am so excited about having a new basketball arena. And it will not be long before all the new jobs will be opening up…waitresses at restaurants, popcorn and hot dog sellers at the arena, and parking lot attendants….yes, I am really excited.
Great job, guys! Looking good!
How many times can former, voted-out City Council Members hold self-recognition ceremonies to honor themselves?
How many times can the builders install Capstones, or Cornerstones, or Topstones, or Topbeams?
Enough with the self-congratulations. Let’s get this project done, book some real events and find out if the math behind this behemoth really works.
As many times as you can have mission accomplished ceremonies.