Contract to build indoor facility awarded

[rl]

The same construction company that recently built Clemson's indoor football facility has won the bid to build a similar structure for South Carolina.

Sherman Construction, based in Piedmont, has been awarded an $11.53 million contract by the university to build USC's planned 111,061-square-foot indoor facility on the west rear side of Gamecock Park (formerly the "Farmer's Market") adjacent to the location of the new twin practice fields currently under construction.

The contract to build the new practice fields was awarded in February.

Construction of the indoor practice facility is expected to begin in May and take about one year to complete. So, as long as construction proceeds on schedule, the facility should be finished in time for summer workouts in 2015.

"This is an exciting time for our football program," USC athletics director Ray Tanner said in a statement. "With today's announcement, we are ready to begin work on the new indoor practice facility. We have an excellent design team in place and look forward to seeing this beautiful facility constructed."

Sherman narrowly outbid seven other companies for the contract, with the base bids ranging from $11.31 million to $12.58 million.

Besides agreeing to build the indoor facility, Sherman will also install catwalks on the east and west side of the facility at a cost of $218,000.

USC's athletic Web site says the indoor facility will feature a regulation 100-yard turf football field along with restrooms, athletic training rooms and film towers.

When the school solicited bids for the project, it said the exterior of the indoor facility would be metal, translucent sandwich panels and masonry. In addition, the facility would be constructed to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver certification standards.

The total cost of the indoor facility project is $14.5 million, with the remaining $2.97 million budgeted for other costs associated with the project such as architects, engineers and contingencies.

USC plans to convert the current indoor facility located across the street from the Rice Athletic Center (administration building) and Stone Stadium into a full--fledged indoor track facility with a banked track and other amenities in order to allow the Gamecock to host winter meets.

According to the company's Web site, Sherman Construction "delivered complete design and construction (of Clemson's indoor facility) on-budget and on-schedule" in December 2012.

The company states on its Web site that the "core indoor football facility (at Clemson) measures 410' x 210' and houses a full-sized regulation NCAA football practice field. We utilized a pre-engineered metal building with brick and metal panels, translucent wall panels around the perimeter of the building to maximize natural lighting. Eleven 16'-0" wide overhead doors around the building perimeter will allow for easy movement from indoors to outdoors, as well as provide for excellent natural cross ventilation of the facility."

DM