Dome roof to sport tan, not wrinkles

Goodbye, white and bulgy. Hello, smooth and tan.

The Metrodome's new roof will have a flatter profile and light brown panels that will bleach to white over time, according to officials who have chosen a New York company that will install it.

On Friday, Birdair Inc., which designed and installed the Metrodome roof 30 years ago, officially got the job of replacing it. The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission voted Friday to accept the proposal from Birdair, the project's sole bidder.

"Thank God we got a bid," commission chairman Ted Mondale said after the group's Friday meeting.

"It was actually less than we thought it would be," he added, referring to earlier estimates that the roof replacement could cost $18.3 million or more.

Birdair's price: $17.97 million for a roof that will be substantially complete by Aug. 1. That deadline will allow the Minnesota Vikings to play a preseason game at the Dome as soon as Aug. 12.

The company will get an extra $500,000 for early or on-time completion, but face penalties if the roof isn't done in time. Birdair would be docked $20,000 per day between Aug. 2 and 13 for missing the deadline, plus $700,000 for each missed scheduled Vikings home game.

Birdair aims to have workers at the stadium as early as March 17, with installation of new materials to begin around March 30.

Asked how likely it is that Birdair can finish as soon as the Vikings want, Mondale said, "We feel really good about it."

But it will be tight. "There is no cushion in this schedule," said Bill Lester, the commission's executive director. "It is paramount that we move forward," he said, adding that "we'll also need some good fortune with the weather."

How it'll be done

The project will start out with about 30 local ironworkers and ramp up to as many as 60 as work progresses. Birdair plans to supply its own project managers and safety staff.

Birdair's plans call for workers to cut out old roof panels individually and lower them to the ground. Workers will be divided into several teams that will replace the roof's diamond, rectangular and triangular panels in an orderly sequence.

The new panels will be made of a fiberglass material very similar to the old ones.

But here's one difference fans will notice, said Dome facilities and engineering director Steve Maki: An inner liner will not be replaced in the roof's central area, so the interior of the Dome will be brighter.

Baffles attached to the inside of the roof will improve the stadium's acoustics.

And the new panels are designed in a way that will lower the overall profile of the roof and reduce snow drifting between panels. The new roof will have a life expectancy of "at least 20 years," Maki said.

Faster work, more money

The total cost of the project could hit $25 million. That price tag includes Birdair's bid as well as ancillary costs such as work done this winter to analyze the roof's strength, prep work to stabilize the structure and fees of various engineers and consultants.

Officials say they believe that insurance will cover most of the project's costs, except for a $25,000 deductible and some expenses, such as legal fees, that are exempt.

In documents submitted to the commission, Birdair indicated that with more time to complete the roof, its price would have gone down. With a substantial completion deadline of Aug. 27 instead of Aug. 1, for example, Birdair offered to do the job for $16.9 million.

At its meeting Friday, the commission removed its policy of maintaining at least $6 million in reserves to boost cash flow for the roof replacement. The board also authorized the payment of $4.5 million in advance of insurance proceeds to make sure that Birdair's work isn't held up.

Officials at a second company, FabriTec Structures, had expressed interest, but sent a letter Wednesday saying that it had decided not to bid. Shipping materials to and from its manufacturing locations in Australia would have driven up its bid and meant delays that could have pushed project completion past the first snowfall.