BY ANNE MICHAUD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Hamilton County commissioners approved more than $44 million in construction contracts for the new Bengals stadium Wednesday. The largest contract was for the concrete bowl of the stadium, awarded to a joint venture of Baker Concrete Construction of Monroe and Dugan & Meyers Construction Co., based in Blue Ash. The joint venture submitted the low bid of $43,359,000, said Dan Streyle, a spokesman for project manager Getz Ventures.
The bowl will use roughly 120,000 tons of concrete, Mr. Streyle said, or 60,000 cubic yards.
Dugan & Meyers, founded in 1935, managed the $14 million renovation of the Crown coliseum last year and Chicago's new Comiskey Park baseball stadium.
Baker Concrete Construction also won the bid Wednesday for sidewalks along Pete Rose Way, at a cost of $80,062. During a previous bidding round, the county hired Baker Concrete for underground concrete work and to build a slab for the stadium, at a cost of $6.1 million.
The third contact awarded Wednesday went to General Electric Supply, which will sell event lighting to the county for $590,800. All were the low bidders, Mr. Streyle said.
It is important to buy the lights early because they will rest on the roof, Mr. Streyle said, and designers are calculating now how much weight the roof will have to hold.
The new Paul Brown Stadium on Cincinnati's riverfront is expected to cost $400.3 million. It is scheduled to open for the 2000 Bengals football season.
