BCB's David Sameshima found quite a bit of activity during his mid-afternoon Wednesday visit to Wrigley Field:
As we already knew, they were quite busy getting the bleachers ready for Thursday's right-field opening. The have peeled back part of the construction fencing, on the south end of Sheffield. The street is in pretty rough shape on this side. There are no curbs, and portions of the paving bricks along the sidewalk are loose or missing.They were installing fences around end of the right-field bleachers, similar to what they did in the left field corner. The exterior bleacher wall along Sheffield is not quite done yet. They were still lifting fence sections up in right field. They seemed to all be going up to the right field porch. I could still hear a lot of hammering taking place in right field. I could also barely see some welding taking place, but it was taking place deep under the bleachers, where I could not photograph it.They were very busy around the main bleacher gate. This is where they were just excavating near the gate for utility work yesterday. I couldn't see how they patched up the street, and exactly where they worked yesterday. The area they excavated on Waveland near Kenmore appears to still be open. There are boards along the side of the excavation now, to reinforce the opening. They were also busy digging in the triangle lot. Due to a large crane parked along the Clark Street side of the lot, they had to open up a side work gate to allow dump trucks in the work zone. Since the drive through construction lane was not available, dump trucks had to park on Clark Street in front of the ballpark. To show how tight their work space is, they had to remove part of the fence, next to where the crane was operating. They had to allow room for the counterweight, when the crane swiveled.
When I was at Wrigley for my morning Fox-32 appearance, I saw quite a number of trucks lined up along Addison, waiting to make a turn onto Clark, so this situation must still exist this afternoon. Looking at the right-field bleachers this morning, there are still areas that aren't painted, and although there are stairs in the right-field corner, much of that area still looks like a construction zone. As it was in the left-field bleachers when they first opened last months, accomodations in right field will be pretty spartan at first, mostly just seating and some concessions carts.
Since the Cubs have five night games out of six in this homestand, the crews can work (weather permitting) most days without interfering with games, and then the Cubs go out of town again. After Tuesday, the Cubs have 11 of their next 15 games on the road. They should have no problems finishing as announced for July 3.
David will be in the bleachers tonight so tomorrow we'll bring you photos from both outside and inside.