With on-site preparations, historical mitigations and permit applications all wrapping up, demolition of the Ryan Field football stadium is scheduled to begin the week of Jan. 29, Northwestern University representatives shared at a virtual Seventh Ward meeting Thursday evening.
The university’s construction partners joined Northwestern community liaison Dave Davis, Council Member Eleanor Revelle and city planning staff in sharing updates to a Zoom audience of around 100 viewers at peak attendance. Mike Musial, the project’s superintendent from Turner Construction Company, said the perimeter fence will be installed and demolition equipment will be staged beginning Monday, and the stadium’s mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems will be shut off the following week.
‘No wrecking balls’
Musial said overall demolition will take “approximately four months,” and made it clear it would involve “no wrecking balls [and] no explosives.” Instead, equipment that’s “like a backhoe that has a gripper on it will take apart the building piece by piece,” Musial said.
Over the course of the meeting, city and university officials confirmed other details of the demolition process:
- Work will be limited to the city’s standard construction hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays.
- Trucks and work crews will not use on-street parking around the stadium; trucks will park on site, and work crews will park in off-site garages and use mass transportation to reach the stadium.
- Asbestos abatement work is already underway, and will be completed before any demolition work begins.
- Northwestern has finalized its Memorandum of Agreement with the State Historic Preservation Office and has completed the required pre-demolition actions, including taking photographs of the stadium itself.
- The university has met with representatives of Indigenous Tribes four times to discuss potential archaeological discoveries, and will involve them in the processing of any artifacts discovered during demolition.
Trucks, traffic and environmental mitigation
Outside of the demolition site, trucks will use a single roundabout route when driving to and from the stadium. In both directions, stadium truck traffic will be limited to:
- Golf Road and Emerson Street between Crawford and Sherman Avenues;
- Sherman Avenue between Emerson and Central Streets;
- Central Street between Sherman and Ashland Avenues.
Revelle said this route was designed to avoid trucks driving on Central Street west of the stadium and disrupting the nearby business district, but also recognized the tradeoff effect it will have on traffic east of the stadium.
“The trucks have to get out of town somehow, and it’s going to be inconvenient no matter what,” Revelle said.
On the issue of traffic, one parent in attendance asked whether crosswalks across Central Street will be open around the stadium, particularly the one on Ashland Avenue her children use to reach St. Athanasius School. She suggested the city consider installing a crosswalk at the intersection of Central and Eastwood Avenue, as she thinks stadium construction will make pedestrian traffic unsafe over the next few years.
Answering her question, Musial said all of Central Street’s crosswalks and north sidewalk will remain open during demolition, with on-site flaggers stationed around the stadium to ensure pedestrian safety.
“[It’s] similar to how a crossing guard operates, except they’re watching for the trucks and making sure that pedestrians can get by safely,” Musial said. “That’ll be at every gate location when trucks are coming in and out.”
Another issue of concern for attendees was how the project would monitor and manage dust and vibrations during the demolition process. Andrew San Roman, the city’s interim building official, said Northwestern and its contractors will be responsible for monitoring the project’s vibrations and providing monthly reports to the city, and said the city can fine the university and take other enforcement action if the project breaks the city’s vibration limits.
“The city is prepared to stop work if there are major concerns,” San Roman said. “But we’re confident that the vibration monitoring that Northwestern will do will help.”
Hosing debris
To deal with dust, Musial said crews will “hose down” the structure before demolition begins to remove residual debris, and will then use misters to douse the air and at points of contact while tearing the concrete apart. Finally, all vehicles will be washed prior to leaving the project site, and street sweepers will be “readily available” to clean up any debris that escapes to surrounding streets.
Several people asked for further details on these mitigations, such as how the water used to wash the stadium will be disposed of, and how residents can access the monthly vibration reports Northwestern sends to the city. Officials couldn’t immediately answer these questions Thursday evening, but Davis promised they’d be addressed in the near future.
“This is not the last meeting that we’re going to have,” Davis said. “So if you don’t get all of the information [and] answers today, keep in mind that we’ll be back again when Council Member Revelle invites us to share more information.”
A recording of the meeting will be posted on Revelle’s City Council webpage, according to an email announcing the meeting.
Folks- This stadium has been there almost 100 years. It inevitably HAD to be replaced. To act like this is some kind of optional thing that they just do for the fun of it is ridiculous. I think the University and the City are being generally very thoughtful about this. You all moved into a neighborhood with an old as hell stadium, you had to know this was eventually going to happen.
How will traffic effect the Evanston hospital?
There was no mention of the effect that the demolition will have on traffic to/ from the hospital and the Graham Building. Could you please address this issue?
Thank you.
This demolition initially requires both asbestos & lead abatement remediation. The question of experience on these matters becomes critical. Also, the washing of all the vehicles AND the lawful collection & disposal of ALL liquids from the site becomes paramount. Chicago is in the process of making restitution to those affected by the prior demolition of the Crawford Power Station in the Pilsen neighborhood. I’m an OSHA Competent Person, and my expertise in this area goes back over 35 years.
Thank you for this reporting. I was on this call, and this article helpfully summarizes all that was presented and discussed.
Thank you Councilmember Revelle for tightening up the conversation around construction vehicles. I believe that us neighbors closest to the construction site can handle the reality of trucks traveling around Evanston.
I have faith too that those who work in construction trades will be respectful of the businesses and residents near the site. Hopefully we in Evanston can return that respect.
NU’s arrogance continued to reign during the meeting. When a resident asked about NU’s plan to repair any potential damage to city infrastructure or homes, Dave Davis snapped, “We’re giving the city $150 million in a community benefits agreement!” or words to that effect. As if that paltry amount was intended to mitigate damages NU itself would cause, rather than to help Evanston thrive. At least he no longer fills our ears with hooey about being a good neighbor.
Aaron, you got it slightly wrong. We still heard lots of “we really care” and “we’re going to be a really really really good neighbor” and then when he snapped, we saw the true return of his disregard for resident concerns.
I think Ms. Russell’s question about who to call on Saturdays when 311 is closed is an important one that has been left unanswered. And is the city hiring more parking staff to monitor contractor parking in the neigbhorhoods? On game day when we try to flag down staff to write tickets or complain or call 311 the complaints are ignored. Is anything really going to change? Seems unlikely. I’m still waiting for Dave Davis’ cell phone number so we can complain to him directly…
I’m just going to call the non-emergency number for the police on Saturdays. That’s all we can do.
Goodbye Central Street.
I hope the businesses can weather the economic slowdown.
Terrible decision by Northwestern to proceed with this.