Loaders, Excavators Renovate Historic Yale Football Stadium

A team of skid-steer loaders and compact excavators are hard at work on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Conn., as part of a multi-million dollar facelift for historic Yale Bowl. During the year-and-a-half-long project, which began in May, the Bobcat® machines will help restore crumbling walls, stairs and seating areas, and install new drainage lines
for the stadium.

This equipment is ideal for the project and not just because of its power, maneuverability and versatility. Their compact size also enables them to easily fit inside the tunnels, which provide the only access to the interior of the stadium, replacing a lot of hand labor.

Two contractors (customers of Bobcat of Connecticut) are using a variety of Bobcat equipment to tackle different aspects of the project. One of them, Joseph F. Kelly Co., Inc., West Haven, Conn., has historic ties to the Yale Bowl, says Joseph F. Kelly, Jr., the company’s project manager. Prior to starting the company in 1927, his great-grandfather worked for the engineering firm which built the stadium—in several phases—beginning in 1914.

This summer, the company used 753 and S300 skid-steer loaders and 331 and 334 excavators with Bobcat hydraulic breakers for demolition. The work included removing the coping stones from the top of the 9-ft.-high, 4-ft.-thick concrete wall that rings the outside of the bowl and demolishing the piers along the wall. Inside the bowl, the machines removed the top 4 in. of concrete in the seating area of one section of the stadium and demolished concrete steps that lead from the field up to the lower level of seats.

331 and 334 Bobcat excavators work on the renovation of the Yale Bowl.

The excavators also installed the new pre-cast steps which replaced the original steps. In addition to breaking up concrete, the skidsteers loaded concrete debris onto a conveyor which carried the material down to the field where it was loaded into a small truck for removal.

“The 753 was small enough to work efficiently in tight areas, while the S300 provided the lifting capacity to handle heavy loads,” says Kelly. “The Bobcat excavators also performed well on this project.”

The role of P.J.’s Construction, New Haven, Conn., includes removing and replacing stair footing along the outside of the stadium, as well as water and sewer lines and storm water catch basins. Crews used two Bobcat 331 excavators equipped with hydraulic breakers for breaking up footings and other concrete structures and for digging utility trenches.

“These machines fit into areas where larger equipment can’t go,” says Pablo Jimenez, president of the company. “Also, they can do shallow excavating work much faster, while minimizing the amount of dirt that needs to be removed compared to larger excavators.”

The company’s four Bobcat skidsteer loaders—a 753, 763 and two S205s—with hydraulic breakers are being used to break up the concrete step footings and old catch basins. The machines are also equipped with other Bobcat attachments to save even more work. Buckets are used to move soil, sand and concrete debris and the pallet fork attachment is handy for lifting and carrying pipe. The sweeper attachment keeps the work site tidy and clean to minimize the amount of dirt tracked off the work site.

“Our Bobcat machines are working out great on this project,” Jimenez says. “They save us a lot of time and labor.