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Wrigley Field construction update: March 23

More work ongoing at the ballpark over the weekend.

BCB’s David Sameshima visited Wrigley Field Saturday afternoon and filed this report:

I arrived at Wrigley on Saturday afternoon. I knew that Sara Sanchez had visited on Friday, so I didn’t expect to add much to her photo gallery. That turned out to be wrong — there was still much I could photograph on Saturday.

At times traffic did become really backed up around the ballpark. Equipment had to be moved around the exterior of the ballpark. As a result, traffic would have to be stopped, to allow equipment to exit a gate and relocate to another location.

Along Sheffield Avenue there were two blockages. A hydraulic crane was working along the right field corner, and blocking a lane of traffic. In addition, a truck was parked outside of Gate Q, unloading new sod.

I felt bad for the construction workers, and the Cubs Security, who were directing traffic. I witnessed one motorist ignore a construction worker’s direction to stop, and drove around him, as a crane was maneuvering in the Addison and Sheffield intersection. I saw another motorist do this to a Cubs Security person who was directing the traffic around the crane on Sheffield Avenue. I also saw a frustrated motorist drive into an open construction gate on Sheffield Avenue, to make a three point turn, in order to turn around. I was too far away to photograph these incidents, or my view was blocked by other vehicles.

I did see Cubs utility carts hauling away bits of old sod. They appear to be hauling it all toward the Cubs Brown Lot, on Eddy Street. In the past they would lay out old sod along the wide sidewalk, outside the right field corner along Sheffield. The public was invited to take it. Since the current construction project began, they no longer have a public space available to do this.

On my previous visit to Wrigley last Sunday, Gallagher Way was open. In Sara’s visit on Saturday, it also appeared to be open. During my visit on Saturday, it was closed off, with a security person standing guard.

You can see a lot of progress was made even in one day, especially painting of some of the exposed steel on both the right- and left-field sides. The Cubs home opener against the Pirates is just 15 days away.