Special thanks to John McCrea of CAKE MUSIC.

And thank you JediJoy! I injured my back this week and I’ve been nearly paralyzed see my post on “Candida back fat and muscle pains.”

I (JediJoy), went on two solo Raider Stadium photo adventures. JediRich pulled a muscle in his back and has been healing up with Cannabis and his tens massager. I had so much fun. The stadium is coming along beautifully.

On the first day, they were working on a bunch of the trusses. They have been cruising along. On the second day, they lifted another one. I noticed while I was there that they brought in another crane. This one was called a Barnhart Crane. It was massive.

I spoke to the gentleman that was the specialist there with the crane. I asked him how much this Barnhart crane could lift. He told me a million pounds. That is the new orange one that goes across the front of the stadium. They are using this one to help lift the trusses. This will also help to eventually lift the roof on the top of the trusses.

I noticed that they have completed a lot of the concrete on the east side bleachers. These are the away team bleachers. They will be sitting with their backs to the strip. The home team will be facing towards the strip. They have come a long way in a couple weeks.

I am hearing that they have gotten caught up and that the stadium is on course if not hopefully opening a couple days early. We will keep you all posted as it gets closer. For now, we are going into the hot season for Las Vegas. Luckily the crew adjusted their hours last year when we kept tweeting. So when it’s close to 120 degrees or more, the crew starts early like around 2 am, then they get off before it’s too insanely hot out there.

It is super important coming into the summer season for the crew to stay hydrated. Mortenson/McCarthy have set up watering and cooling stations. If you start to overheat, you can go cool off. They make sure that everyone is staying on top of their hydration. This crew is all about safety. They don’t want even one person to get hurt or injured on their projects. Zero mishaps or injuries.

This is the time to check out the stadium if you live in Las Vegas. It is getting harder to see the inside as they build the walls around the outside. It’s a great time to go check out all the crew working on the cranes. It’s a site to see. Their are so many huge cranes and the smaller ones that lift the crew all day long. It feels very alien like out there with all the amazing machinery.

The crew appears to be in great spirits right now. Everyone I talked to is very positive about the project. One interesting event happened while I was filming. That was when the Raiders security guard asked if I was with the Review Journal. I said no, then she said I was okay to stay. I am sensing there is some tension going on between the press and the stadium. This is most likely stemming from all the back and forth of the opening date a couple weeks back. ​

Stay tuned for more updates.

4K Video Premiers on Tuesday, April 30th 2019 at 09:00AM Las Vegas

Las Vegas is known to have some extreme weather this time of year, but this year seems to be more extreme then ever before. I hope that this will not affect the opening of the stadium. I am not sure how many more rain days they have accounted for.

Monday, April 29th, 2019 started out as a beautiful morning. If you had not seen a weather report you would have thought it would be a normal weather day. Then around noon a huge storm came in. I was sitting in our place and I heard thunder. I woke up JediRich and we ran outside to check it out. There was thunder, lightening , intense wind, rain and hail.

We checked over at the stadium. We can see it from our place. They had unrigged the straps from the trusses and put all the cranes in the “relax shorts” position as I like to call it. We decided to walk down there and check it out. The storm was so intense that they had to shut down the entire construction project for the rest of the day.

All of the trusses had to be removed from the cranes and everything had to be shut down because the storm was strong. This is a lot of metal sitting in the middle of a desert. I am so happy that they shut down all the equipment for the safety of the crew. You sure do not want to be sitting in a metal cage during a lightening storm.

Mortenson/McCarthy are all about safety and zero work mishaps. They always put the crews safety over greed. The Universe appreciates that. They shut down when necessary for safety even if it could set them back and require a third shift. The problem with a third shift, is that, it is very expensive. These budgets are tight on these projects. A third shift could be a substantial amount of money. Hopefully that will not be necessary. These rain days might already be in the master plan. Then we have nothing to worry about.

Everyday of the schedule is crucial as we get closer to the expected completion date. The weirder the weather gets, the more I get irritated that our President has undone so many environmental regulations. Global warming is real my friends and all this crazy weather this year is evidence.

If we end up getting too many more weather setbacks, they will have to go to a third shift. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the Universe has it in the cards for the Raiders to finally make it to Las Vegas in 2020. We are so excited to have an NFL team. This is a state that a couple years back did not even have a professional team. Now we have hockey, woman’s basketball and best of all the NFL Raiders coming!! I cannot wait to go to a game. It will be a blast.

Premiers Wednesday April 24th, 2019 09:00AM Las Vegas

4K Video currently being edited. Check back; it’s the Best Video yet! Go Iron Workers!

​The Las Vegas Raiders Stadium project is coming along beautifully. They have several trusses up. The weather has been fantastic in Las Vegas, so the crew has been able to get a ton of work done on the stadium.

We wanted to make a Tribute Video to the Iron Workers. These workers are the crucial key of this stadium. It’s mind blowing seeing the heights and feet’s that this crew go to, to create a beautiful stadium. They are fearless!

As you will see in this video when it’s completed, the iron workers often work at insane heights. I am not even sure the amount of feet they are up in the air, but it’s breathtaking. The iron workers must have no fear of heights. It’s amazing to see when they lift a truss, they have to retrieve it and place it in place from the crane onto the roof.

So imagine that, you are a ridiculous amount of feet in the air and then you have a 130 ton steel truss coming at you, that you must place in the bracket at the roof of the stadium. Talk about an adrenaline rush. This crew is something else. They better get some crazy hazard pay for a job at those heights.

Thank you iron workers and the entire crew for all your hard work. This stadium is not an easy project. There have been a lot of things the crew, the city and owners have had to overcome to get this project going, continuing and finishing in 2020. We are ecstatic to see the progress lately. The crew appears to be caught up and now have several trusses up.

This is an exciting time in Las Vegas history. We are going through an era change. We have a NFL stadium being built in a town that a couple years ago was not even allowed to advertise in the Super Bowl. Not only can Las Vegas now advertise in the Super Bowl, they plan to host the Super Bowl in 2025. What a crazy turn of events for Sin City.

If you live in Las Vegas and have not had the opportunity to check out the stadium, I recommend you go down there. It’s a site to see. The crew is extremely nice and they are fun to watch as they do their own parts of this masterpiece. Check out the raising of a truss. It’s fun to see.

It was quite an experience to see the first truss go up. It was a wild rush. I can only imagine what these workers feel everyday. Especially the ones that are working at super high heights all day.

I was amazed at the iron workers that had to guide in the 130 ton truss into the bracket at the roof of the stadium while they were standing on a small beam a “million” feet in the air. I do not have a fear of heights, but I would not want to test to see if that would scare me. I can verify now, I would be terrified. Thanks crew!! You sacrifice a lot so we can have a beautiful stadium!!

Sometimes we take for advantage the people that do these tough jobs. Even though you are getting paid, it can be a lot of work. So I want to give a shout out to all the hard workers on this stadium. It takes you all to create this home for the Raiders and we are thankful.

4K Las Vegas Raiders Stadium Video Update Premiers 3/26/2019 at 9am PDT

As of March 21st 2019, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Las Vegas Stadium’s completion date has been pushed back to August 4, 2020. Originally it was set to be completed in June, then July 2020. Now the new date is August 4, 2020. They need to meet this date or super close to it, for the season start in September 2020.

Any more delays could be a serious problem for the completion. This has been a crazy weather year. We had several days of snow in Las Vegas. We had more rain this month than expected. It’s been very windy, which is common. All of these things affect the flow. Mortenson/McCarthy are all about safety. They do not operate machinery over certain conditions of too much wind or rain. They have zero work injuries or mishaps. These huge cranes cannot be carrying massive structures if it is super windy in Las Vegas.

All of these things were accounted for when they bid for this stadium. Although, I’m not sure they had not accounted for snow days in the desert. I think that one caught us all off guard. Snow days in the desert, who would have thought?

There were many contractors that wanted this project. Companies had to bid to be a part of this stadium. Executives had to meet to figure out who got which part of the plan. All of those projects get a budget, from the steel crew, to the concrete crew to the design crew, etc, Everyone had to bid for their part. Which means there is already a set amount of money. Any delays or extra crew needed will have to come out of someone’s pocket. Everyone is trying to stay within budget.

The Raiders stadium construction was a sought after project. So the best bid won the deal. That means they are on a tight budget. It’s super important for Mortenson/McCarthy to finish this project on time, so that they do not have to have more workers working. They have to weigh out when is the time to start a third shift; or if a third shift is necessary to finish. As of now they are on course for completion of August 4, 2020.

The budgeted 1.9 Billion dollars for this project is where everyone wants it to remain. If it is not completed on time, then it will cost another 10.5 million dollars to rent the Oakland Stadium for another year. The crew would need more money to finish the project. It could get very expensive fast.

This would be detrimental to Las Vegas. We are looking forward to having the Raiders come in 2020. This could affect a lot of businesses that are banking on the Raiders Nation. We are hoping that everyone is making the wisest decisions, so that the Raiders make it to Las Vegas for the 2020 Season.

We are looking forward to keeping everyone updated on the progress.

Article March 21, 2019 SF Chronicle:
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The partially tax-funded stadium that will become the home of the Oakland Raiders in Las Vegas in 2020 has recently faced delays with the delivery of steel components.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports substantial completion of the venue has been pushed back by less than a week to Aug. 4, 2020. The facility would host its first event soon after.

In addition to the delivery issues, a report by an independent construction monitor hired by the stadium's oversight board released Thursday says site visits revealed that "steel components that should have been completed have not yet been erected or detailed."

Source: San Francisco Chronicle March 21st 2019
https://m.sfgate.com/news/article/Raiders-stadium-in-Vegas-facing-delays-on-steel-13707491.php