CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa
The steel support structure for the city's new downtown convention center has started to go up, and project manager John Frew has called it "a major milestone" for the project.
The construction of the new convention center and the indoor renovation of the arena and hotel next door have been underway for months, with little to show for it. Frew, a principal with Frew Nations Group, said the raising of steel follows the drilling of 955 piers into a square block area to support the convention center structure. In the process, workers found all kinds of surprises, from old buildings to differing soils, under the ground on the construction site.
The construction site, he said, is about to become "a beehive" of activity. The convention center and arena--which comprise the $75-million Convention Complex project--are slated to open in the spring of 2013 with the $25-million-plus hotel project scheduled to be complete in June 2013, if not sooner, according to Frew.
