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State fairgrounds repair work proceeding on schedule

Posted April 09, 2008 11:00 pm

Doug Finke

State construction officials said Thursday the rewiring project at the Illinois State Fairgrounds is running slightly ahead of schedule, and that they expect work to be completed by the May 16 contract deadline.

By next Friday, four of the five high-voltage circuits running under the fairgrounds are scheduled to be replaced and restored with power.

That includes the circuit that powers the Grandstand, the site of the Memorial Day weekend motorcycle races that annually draw thousands of spectators. It is the next major event scheduled at the fairgrounds, which has been virtually shut down since mid-February due to electrical problems.

Having power restored to the Grandstand could be important should the project run into unforeseen delays.

The state's Capital Development Board - which is overseeing the project - might consider a temporary halt to the work, allowing the races to take place as scheduled, should the weather or some other complication disrupt the project's completion, said CDB spokesman Dave Blanchette.

"We would be open to discussing that possibility (with the Department of Agriculture)," Blanchette said.

But both CDB and B&B Electrical of Springfield, which is doing the work, expect it to be completed by the middle of next month.

"It's been going good, except today," B&B president Todd Brinkman said Thursday morning as rain poured down.

Brinkman said crews weren't working then but expected to resume as soon as the rain stopped. He said weather has not stopped work for an entire day since the project began in March.

B&B has 20 people working at the fairgrounds, about one-third of the company's manpower.

"That's a very large number of men on one job," Brinkman said. "It requires that manpower because of the time frame."

B&B is required to work a double-shift until the project is finished. The company did get permission from the state to overlap the shifts so that more work can be done in daylight. Crews were working until about 10 p.m. and had to use temporary lighting.

"Production in the dark is not nearly as good as daylight," Brinkman said.

"We don't care if the shifts overlap, we care that two entire crews are working on the project. They are," Blanchette said.

So far, only one unexpected problem has been encountered. Workers discovered some concrete conduit had collapsed, forcing a 215-foot section to be dug up and replaced. CDB said the work will add about $35,000 to the $1.8 million contract.

More than 20 miles of underground, high-voltage cable is being replaced.

Engineers determined that the old cable had outlived its useful life, resulting in a series of electrical failures dating to the end of January.

As part of the contract, B&B is allowed to sell the old cable that contains salvageable copper wire. Brinkman could not provide an estimate of what the company has made on the salvage so far.

The total cost of the rewiring project is about $2.37 million.

B&B was hired on an emergency contract when the first outages occurred in late January at a cost of $475,000. Testing and other engineering work cost another $98,000. At the time, engineers thought it was an isolated problem.

When they determined the problems were widespread, CDB sought bids on the rest of the project. B&B was the low bidder at $1.8 million.

While the fairgrounds has been shut down, dozens of events have been displaced. The Illinois Horse Fair was forced to cancel, and the Illinois Beef Expo and the Clydesdale sale had to relocate out of Springfield. Local tourism officials estimate the city's economy took a $750,000 hit.

The fairgrounds also lost $130,000 in rental income.

Doug Finke can be reached at (217) 788-1527.

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