Allen ISD Shuts Down $60 Million Stadium
ALLEN (CBSDFW.COM) - The Allen Independent School District is shutting down the $60 million football stadium that put them on the map. Eagle Stadium has meant so much to the community. It was just completed in August 2012. But district officials said that there are so many cracks in the concrete that it has become a safety concern.
The cracks were first noticed when the stadium originally opened. Since that time, those cracks have multiplied and grown wider -- in places they are one-quarter of an inch to three-quarters of an inch wide.
At a news conference on Thursday, the architect and the builder of the facility said that they are frustrated and upset. The cause of the cracks is unclear, but Benjamin Pogue, president and CEO of Pogue Construction, wants to know who is responsible for the issue. "I'll tell you, if we are, we will be partners in the solution," he said.
The same construction team is also building the school district's $36 million service center.
An independent engineering company will try to determine what happened to cause the cracking. It could be June before that study is complete. In the meantime, Eagle Stadium has been closed indefinitely. The closure means that graduation ceremonies will have to be moved to another location.
The only other event scheduled to take place at the stadium before the school year's end was the Eagle Run 5K race. Participants were going to start and end on the football field, but that will now be moved to the parking lot. It is too early to tell if the issue will have any impact on next school year's football season.
"We're very frustrated. We're very concerned," stated Interim Superintendent Beth Nicholas. "We're not happy about it, of course, and we want to get to the bottom of it, because our taxpayers deserve that."
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