Construction is well underway at the site of the Columbus Crew's new Downtown Stadium, and what you can see coming to fruition now is one of the most important aspects of the entire project - the stadium's secant wall.
Essentially, since the stadium site is built on a floodplain, the secant wall is a retaining wall that will be used to create a bathtub-like structure to seal off water from coming into the site.
A total of 659 piles, or column-like structures, will align the outside of the stadium and constitute the secant wall. The wall spans 2,174 feet, or just over the length of six Major League Soccer fields.
At this very moment, a custom-built auger and drill are digging approximately 659 holes at a depth of 80 feet while steel beams are placed in each hole along with a mixture of concrete and grout. At 80 feet per pile, if all 659 piles were stacked on top of each other, the total would reach 52,720 feet, extending 15,720 feet beyond the average cruising altitude of a Bowing 737 airliner.
Additionally, the steel beams combine for a total of 2,929,500 pounds or 1,464.75 tons, while a total of 30,000 cubic yards of concrete/grout will be used in the construction of the secant wall piles. For perspective, a standard Olympic-sized pool holds 660,430 gallons, which is equivalent to 3,269 cubic yards, so approximately nine Olympic-sized pools of concrete/grout mixture will be poured into the piles.
For another contextual comparison, a concrete mixer truck holds nine cubic yards of concrete, so approximately 3,333 concrete trucks will deliver the necessary concrete/grout mixture for the stadium's secant wall alone.
The secant wall is currently scheduled to be completed by this Spring. In the meantime, be sure to check out the Construction Cam for a live view of the piles being drilled and constructed all around the stadium site.
Currently from the camera's viewpoint, supporters can see the outline of the stadium's plaza, as well as the placement of the field, which will sit below the plaza's elevation and allow supporters walking around to see through the stadium down to the field below.
