Among the trick-or-treating on Oct. 31, Wayne State College took another step towards the completion of the Athletic & Recreation Facility Renovation Project as the new indoor structure moved vertical.
Halloween evening was time for the air-supported structure, or bubble, to move to its next phase in the project.
Director of Athletics, Mike Powicki is excited to see it go up and the next steps will be to finish the inside.
“Originally, as a part of the schedule when this thing was supposed to be up early summer,” said Powicki. “We were going to get the turf installed, the track installed and then the envelope of the bubble was going to go up. Obviously, the rain did not permit us to do that so we reverse pivoted and put the outside up first. So, now we’re kind of back tracking a little bit but on schedule to do the inside.”
Arizon is the contractor who provided the bubble and are wrapping up the lighting and netting system for all items attached to the bubble on the interior. Field turf installers are on campus for the next few weeks followed by the mondo track installation before finalizing the inside items.
The end result with Wayne State College taking over ownership will be December 16 to have access to the Wildcat Dome and be used.
Powicki added when the project experienced weather delays the focus shifted to other areas of construction.
“That’s where it really converted from a three-phase project into one giant phase,” Powicki added. “That little structure on the north side of the Rec Center which houses our men’s and women’s track and field locker rooms, some of the other general patron locker rooms and other storage is pretty much wrapped up and done and ready to be open.”
The alleyway has also seen a lot of progress along with inside the current recreation center expanding from three to now four courts.
The new addition of the air-supported structure and auxiliary link will provide a 300-meter synthetic track, two pole vault boxes, two jumping pits and two throw circles with safety cages. Also, the infield of the track will have a multi-functional artificial turf with a perimeter protective netting along with four baseball/softball/golf hitting cages. A full 10-yard end zone along with an additional 80 yards of turf will be within the six-lane track.
An auxiliary link and structure will provide the primary means for access to the air-supported structure, and its connection to the recreation center will house two newly constructed locker rooms for the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field programs.
The dome is 103,400 square feet with a 73 foot peak.
Athletic administration will have been relocated in Brandenburg for over a year and will move back once the project is complete.
Although, the office didn’t get addressed in this project, Powicki mentioned they have gained some office space.
“Our track and field coaches have a new office suite that was built out over one of the old racquetball courts which is now the new general student locker room in the Rec Center itself,” Powicki mentioned. “Our intent, is we’ll be the last kind of check off the box when our Administrative staff who’s over in Brandenburg gets moved over to the Rec Center here in January.”
