Just two years after opening, $60 million high school stadium will close for repairs

The Allen Independent School District in Allen, Texas, will not open its high school's $60 million Eagle Stadium this fall.

The stadium opened in 2012, but cracks recently began appearing throughout the structure, Business Insider reports. Nelson Forensics inspected the stadium and judged that the support structures were not designed to hold the stadium's weight.

Some of the problems include failure to completely fill the concourse deck pan during concrete pours and too much space between stirrups. Overall, the investigators found that the load demand exceeded the building's standards by 10-20% in multiple areas; in a few isolated areas, this number rose to 70%.

Prior to this prelimary report, the stadium's designer, PBK Architects, had said that the cracking was likely a result of concrete shrinkage. Now, WFAA reports, PBK and Pogue Construction, who built the stadium, will pay for the repairs through their insurance. The repairs are estimated at less than $1 million.

During this year's football season, Allen will pay $5,300 per game so that its students can play at a nearby high school.

Below are some photos of the damage and a graphic released by Nelson Forensics (all images courtesy of Business Insider and the Dallas Morning News).

Components of the $9-million structural concrete construction phase included a 700-foot-long, below-grade baggage-handling tunnel; metal decks covered in poured-in-place concrete; slab-on-grade for the new terminal; and 10 exterior architectural columns––each 56-feet tall and erected at a 14-degree angle.