Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/853654
www.HartfordBusiness.com • January 30, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 19 What fans, taxpayers get with a $250M XL Center renovation FOCUS: Professional Services EXPERTS CORNER By Patricia Daddona pdaddona@HartfordBusiness.com The most demanding task, state officials say, will be managing the flow of the entire four-year project in a way that bookends sports activity around the late spring and summer construction season. Michael Freimuth, executive director of the Capital Region Development Author- ity (CRDA), and Robert Saint, director of construction services, said in a recent, wide-ranging interview inside the build- ing's newest addition, the "fan club," that everything from acquiring the adjacent atrium and storefronts so the building can front Trumbull Street, to moving suites to floor level and replacing electrical, HVAC and plumbing systems constitutes a chal- lenge. But oversight over four years -- from April through August, gradually exposing sports fans and even occasional concert- goers, to new digs -- has to flow smoothly and in a way that doesn't disrupt ongoing hockey and basketball seasons, they said. "Doing the work in a short period of time, and having the building meet all the life safety codes and at the end of that period be useable, that's the biggest challenge," Saint said. It et optatur empedici assusti onsequodita sitis quuntumquod eatissi dias volenitae sitia voles est ut plignient, sus, eum reperfera iduntem esequis dem si tesciur aut occae. Anisimi llatio dolor sum estorrum explis alibus dem a aute expliquate debit vid qui Startup's sensor tech aims for better bridge inspections Q&A talks to Kevin McMullen, a UConn Civil engineering grad- uate student who founded a startup called NexGen Infrastructure, which provides state-of-the-art bridge monitoring systems. The technology uses force-sensing pads (sensors) to provide continuous electronic monitoring and data collection allows engineers to better evaluate and react to changes in a bridge's performance over its lifespan. The technology was developed during research conducted in the UConn Structures Laboratory. UConn Engineering professor Hadi Bo- zorgmanesh started a program at UConn to develop engineering students into entrepre- neurs. McMullen took the first experiential tech entrepreneurship course in the fall of 2015, where he developed NexGen's technol- ogy. Q. Is this type of bridge monitoring new? It seems like in the not-too-distant past the state had bridge inspectors. Does this automate the process and eliminate the need for them? A. Research projects have been conducted by other universities and companies to inte- grate different types of sensors into bridge bearings to monitor their performance. A majority of these projects have significant concerns regarding cost, constructability and implementation. A current method commonly used to monitor and evaluate a bridge's perfor- mance is structural health monitoring. Structural health monitoring studies are commonly conducted on bridges of inter- est or concern to determine how they are functioning under daily traffic. These studies consist of applying various sensors at several locations on a bridge to monitor force, strain and displacement. This process is tedious, expensive, and is only used to monitor a small number of critical bridges. Bridge inspectors are still required to inspect every bridge at least every two years. This involves visual inspection of every component of the bridge. They look at structural components such as corrosion and cracking. The development of a force sensing bridge bearing that can monitor a bridge's performance under traffic loads will Opened as the Hartford Civic Center in 1975 and home to the team eventually known as the Hartford Whalers, the XL Center has weathered a roof collapse in 1978 and loss of pro hockey in 1997. With a capacity today of approximately 16,000, the venue was upgraded in 2014 with $35 mil- lion worth of improvements to mechanical systems, public spaces, locker rooms and a fan club area where people congregate before and after events. It's that new fan club, with its tables and seating well above the hockey rink that doubles as a basketball court, that has dem- onstrated just how valuable a full-fledged renovation could be, Freimuth said. "There are people in here an hour before game time just partying in this one spot," Freimuth said of the existing fan club area. "They wouldn't have come just to sit in their seats for an hour. There's two things going on there: The socialization and utilization of the building, and there's also money being made." In the transformed arena, new clubs, premium seating, dining options and other amenities will be sprinkled throughout the center to attract patrons, Saint said. The center lost about 500 seats to the 2014 renovation, but when access is recon- figured around two concourses instead of one, existing stairwells between the seats will be replaced with seating, boosting ca- pacity to about 17,000 seats for hockey and 18,000 for basketball, Saint said. There will be 28 suites on two levels plus up to eight suites right behind the bench. The majority of the suites, which are higher up now, will be on the floor, under the stands where ice-making equipment cur- rently exists -- and where the action is. The suites create a living-room environ- ment with a pantry, kitchen and a corridor out into premium seats, he added. "That's where the teams come out and go to the ice or the court, so there's that kind of excitement [that isn't available now]," Freimuth said. "[Fans] are high-fiv- ing the team members as they run by." The two bowls feeding into a single concourse impedes movement and jams up restrooms and concessions, Saint explained. The "bowl" is the large open area with slop- ing seats that accommodate sporting events, shows and concerts. With two concourses, general admission would be at the top and premium seating at the bottom. Payoffs Kevin McMullen UConn Civil Engineering graduate student and founder, NexGen. Before After S tate lawmakers have a difficult decision in the months ahead on whether or not to invest $250 million to renovate the aging XL Center. But the much harder task will be the actual recon- struction of the 42-year-old facility, should the project get the go-ahead. Continued on next page Continued on next page