Answering a hot topic: Will Texas Tech football projects be done on time?
The scale of Texas Tech's ongoing two-year, $242 million football projects and the relatively tight frame has prompted a question among some Red Raiders followers for months: Can two such massive structures come together by the time the Texas Tech football team takes the field Aug. 31 for the season opener against Abilene Christian?
"That is certainly the plan," Tech deputy athletics director Jonathan Botros said in late January. "I think the south end zone has a little bit of an earlier substantial-completion estimate, so we feel really confident there.
"Our contractor has had projects similar to this and timelines similar to this that they've had to meet before, and so we have a confidence level there that they'll be able to accomplish it. So we're still looking at a June to July time frame to complete the south end zone."
Manhattan Construction and Lee Lewis Construction are contractors on the projects: a four-level south end zone building and the two-story Dustin R. Womble Football Center. Tech announced plans for them in July 2022.
It was 14 months ago that the original Double T scoreboard was removed from the south end zone at Jones AT&T Stadium, the first visible sign the new south end zone building was on its way.
Fans were able to see progress each week during the 2023 season. Shortly after the season ended, underground infrastructure work began on a new visitors' locker room at the northeast corner of the stadium. Also on the docket before the 2024 season are a new Double T scoreboard atop the south end zone building, a new video board in the north end zone, three ribbon boards and a sound system.
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Putting the final touches on the visitors' locker room, as well as the Womble Football Center, are supposed to take place right before the season starts.
"I think the substantial-completion date is literally the day before we kick off against Abilene Christian," Botros said. "But again, they continue to do updated forecasts and do deep dives on a weekly basis on every single task of the project and right now feel confident about doing that.
"But Mike Ryan and his team always prepare and think through if, for some reason, there's a delay there, how we'll accomplish making sure that football still is able to operate in an efficient manner."
Ryan is a Tech senior associate athletics director for facilities and event operations. The Womble Football Center will replace, as the team's day-to-day headquarters, the Football Training Facility that recently was torn down.
In December 2021, Tech announced the formation of the Red Raider Facilities Foundation Inc. to oversee development of the university's future sports facilities. Tech officials have said doing such projects under the RRFFI facilitates faster work by reducing red tape and delays.
Design and construction of buildings at any of the five component universities within the Texas Tech System are usually overseen by the university's facilities planning and construction. At a regents meeting in 2021, the board authorized the formation of the RRFFI to control the two football projects.
"Running this privately, I think, has been a success thus far," Botros said recently. "Sometimes it's difficult to quantify specific financial savings as it relates to doing it using this method, but it's really the speed at which we're able to go, the adjustments we're able to make to the work schedules to make sure that it's done on time and things like that, that end up saving you a lot of money and provide you some flexibility. But thus far, it's been really positive for us."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Answering a hot topic: Will Texas Tech football projects be done on time?
