The Papé Group Gets Assist on Duck’s New Court

Thu November 05, 2009
Rebecca Ragain

University of Oregon (UO) basketball fans are eagerly following the progress of the new Matthew Knight Arena, which replaces the affectionately regarded but much outdated McArthur Court.

McArthur Court, nicknamed Mac Court and The Pit, is the second oldest on-campus gym in the country, according to UO’s sports history Web site. Built in 1926, the court’s original capacity was 6,000; improvements over the years brought capacity to its current 9,087.

“There are a lot of fond memories of The Pit,” said Tim Clevenger, vice president of marketing and brand management at The Papé Group Inc., who is a UO graduate and past president of the university’s alumni association. “However, as the program has grown, it’s just been harder and harder to get people in there.”

“Matt Court,” as some fans refer to the new arena, will seat 12,541 — in wider, modern-style seats with better court views — and have more than four times as many restrooms compared to McArthur Court.

The Matthew Knight Arena is named in honor of UO patron Phil Knight’s son, who died in 2004. In 2007, the co-founder of Nike pledged $100 million to the university’s athletic department, catalyzing funding of the $230-million arena project.

Ground breaking for the 397,825-sq.-ft. (36,960 sq m) arena took place in February. The first Ducks game in the new arena is scheduled to take place as early as December of next year, giving general contractor Hoffman Construction and approximately 70 subcontractors less than 24 months from start to finish.

Salem, Ore.-based K&E Excavating Inc. has been on the job since early this year. The pace during the first few months of K&E’s $5.9-million contract was breakneck; excavation of 320,000 cu. yds. (244,660 cu m) was substantially complete in 67 days.

K&E took an area equivalent to 3.5 city blocks down 30 ft. (9.1 m), on average, with the deepest sections reaching 44 ft. (13.4 m). The company ran a Caterpillar 345 excavator and two 330s, as well as a Caterpillar D7 dozer leased from Halton Co. Additional trucks were hired from companies such as Delta Sand & Gravel Co. (Eugene) and Bandon Concrete & Development of Bandon, Ore.

“We were running 20 to 30 trucks all day long,” said K&E field superintendent Michael Zollner.

Each of the trucks had to be washed before leaving the site, due to the city of Eugene’s erosion control regulations. K&E rented an elaborate wheel wash system, but it couldn’t keep up the pace. The problem was remedied with the most basic solution: laborers with hoses washing down tires, “working their tails off,” Zollner said.

The weather complicated matters; at one point it rained two inches over the course of two days. The winter water table for the site is 13 ft. below ground level and K&E was working at 17 ft. below. K&E hired BakerCorp to set up a pump/filtration system and train K&E workers to use it. Zollner said that for five months, two men were dedicated solely to the task of running the filtration system, ensuring that the water was purified before being sent into the storm drain.

“By the time the water came out of the filtration system, it was pretty much drinkable water,” said Zollner.

After excavating the arena area, K&E moved to a related project: an $18-million underground parking garage intended to accommodate Ducks fans. While K&E was at work excavating the area for the three-level garage, Delta Sand and Gravel hauled nine feet of rock into the arena site as backfill.

Between the arena and the parking garage, K&E prepared for more than 300 footings, plus an additional 25 as part of yet another related project: two practice courts of more than 16,000 sq. ft.

For the arena footings, K&E used Trimble GPS systems. Over the past two years, the 130-employee excavation company has ramped up its GPS use, adding units to its machines and dedicating eight workers to operate the systems, full-time.

“Once you learn and understand the system, it’s the way to go,” said Zollner. “Production goes way up with it.”

At present, K&E has about five employees on the UO job, as it wraps up work for the season by finishing the practice courts’ footing excavation and backfill. K&E will return to work in the spring; completion for its contract is scheduled for September/October of next year.

In the meantime, other contractors will continue to work on the arena. The prime concrete contractor, Pence/Kelly Concrete of Salem, has nearly finished the structural concrete. Over the next few weeks, pre-cast stadia slabs will be hoisted into place. In December, structural steel, including roof trusses, will begin to go up.

The financial benefits of such a landmark project in a state with the fourth highest unemployment rate in the nation are obvious. There are also other, less tangible perks for the contractors involved.

Zollner said: “To have a chance to work on a high profile job like this is a once-in-a-lifetime deal…My grandkids will be able to come to a Ducks game [at the new arena] and know that their grandfather helped build it.”

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The Papé Connection

With its corporate headquarters based in Eugene, where the University of Oregon is located, it’s no surprise that The Papé Group Inc. employs a lot of UO graduates.

Furthermore, former company president and CEO Randy Papé was “a University of Oregon man through and through,” wrote Rick Attig in a November 2008 Oregonian article published the week of Papé’s death.

Tim Clevenger, The Papé Group’s vice president of marketing and brand management, describes Randy Papé as “integrally involved” with the university, pointing out the CEO’s key role in a recent capital campaign that helped raise $600 million for the university.

Like Papé, Clevenger is a UO graduate, as well as a past president of the university’s alumni association. As a Ducks fan and marketing professional, he’s excited about the new arena: “It’ll be a great venue to get more fans and more citizenship, for people from around the state to see Oregon ball.” CEG

This story also appears on Construction Equipment Guide.