Raiders Stadium/By: JediJoy Lightowler
The Las Vegas Raiders Allegiant Stadium is cruising to the finish line for 2020. We went out to the stadium several times in the last week. The stadium is taking its full form. It is getting harder to see the workers. A lot of the work is now occurring on the inside of the stadium.

They had an on site cement mixer on the corner of Russell Rd and Polaris Ave. They disassembled the mixer this week. That is the signal that the concrete is complete. It was weird to see the stadium without the mixer. The mixer, had become a staple in Vegas. There was a nice Raider Logo and US Flag painted onto the mixer.

Now, the stadium can be seen clearly from Russell Road. The cement mixer was super cool, but it did obstruct the view of the stadium from the corner. Thanks cement mixer. It was nice to have you as a part of the project. I was actually sad to see the mixer go.

I love all the machines and equipment. It was interesting to see how they move the cranes. We were down there when they were moving the crane to lift the Lanai doors. They have to put 12/12 Timber posts on the ground for the crane to glide on. It is quite a process.

They have to put several pieces in front with a forklift and then have another fork lift picking up the pieces behind the crane. It is a beautiful display of teamwork when you see the crew doing tasks like this. The Mortenson/McCarthy Crew seem to flow well together. I have never seen any bickering or confusion. It seems to be a well managed and efficiently flowing system.

I love the cranes. I am always amazed with how massive they are. I had not realized the process it took to move each crane. I am always amazed when I see the steps it takes for each thing. We tend to not think of all the steps taken to create this massive and gorgeous stadium. I have enjoyed seeing all the building blocks for the whole project.

I would have never thought, that construction would be so interesting. It is, and the equipment is amazing when you think about the capacity of these transformers. I can watch the cranes, lifts, forklifts and all the equipment all day long.

It is fun to see the process to lift the Lanai doors. It is an extensive process that takes several weeks. They had to set up all the cable guides first on the roof. There was so much prep work before, they could begin to lift the roof. They are lifting the roof from the inside of the stadium. It will be hard to see until it gets closer to the top of the stadium. We will keep you all updated.

We love this stadium project. We have been following it, since the beginning. We took photos when they posted the first sign, saying “The Raiders are Coming”. We were so pumped up to document the whole process. We used to live walking distance from the stadium. We would walk to the stadium at least once a week, if not more often.

We would walk through this field, to get to the stadium. There were these homeless people that lived under the bridge there. They had several dudes that ran them drugs. They would drive up and go down under the bridge. JediRich was walking through as this was occurring. He had his expensive camera around his neck and all his gear.

One of the dudes cracked JediRich on the back of the head with a rock. Another guy hit him with a golf club. They went for the camera. JediRich held onto the camera and got his Nunchucks out with his head bleeding. He was screaming at the guys, with blood gushing down his face. The dudes eventually took off. JediRich got a quick clip of their car.

I was so worried, he called me right away. I felt so bad, that I had not been with him. I was running errands. It took awhile for JediRich to recover. He was more worried about his camera. It had dropped on the ground during this whole debacle. JediRich and the camera both survived. Needless to say, we walked a different way for awhile.

Eventually a couple months later, those homeless guys set the whole area on fire on accident. They burned all the cardboard boxes under the bridge. We were able to walk once it was a soot filled mess. No one could live there any longer. Which was cool, considering these guys that lived there and their friends were violent people.

We will continue to get updates as we near closer to the opening games in 2020!!

​Allegiant Stadium has seen much progress this months.  The glass panels are being installed and the white design trim.

4K Video Tonight at 11

The Raiders will be coming to Vegas on their 60th Birthday. The Raiders were established on January 30th, 1960. The 2020 season will mark 60 years as an NFL team. They just installed a new sign by the stadium to commemorate the birthday coming up.

The black exterior glass panels are being installed on the outside of the stadium. They are starting from the front bottom of the stadium and moving upward with the panels. It looks fantastic. They have also started the working on the design trim in the front of the stadium. This is the swirl effect that the stadium has on the front. I like to call it a swoosh. It’s the black and white design trim, seen in the renderings.

This is a huge step in the forward motion, before long the sides of the stadium will be completely enclosed with glass panels. All the construction will be occurring on the interior of the stadium at that point. Now is the time to see the crew at work. Pretty soon they will be enclosed with the black, glass walls.

They have finished most of the exterior painting. They had to paint the steel black. It comes in a rust like black color. They clean it up, prime it and paint it. The black paint is so beautifully shinny. The crew is doing an amazing job. The stadium crew appears to be on hyper-speed as we race to the open date in August 2020.

They are still working on the paving. They had to move the crew parking to a different location on the other side of the bridge, so they could pave that lot. I was unaware of the massive undertaking to pave a parking lot. I thought they just poured the pavement. Apparently, it’s a much bigger process.

They have a ton of prep before they can pave. They have to excavate the area first. That’s what they have been working on since they came back from Labor Day Weekend. I thought it was more like a two day process, then two week process. I learn something new everyday.

On a different note, Mortenson/McCarthy, one of the American Flags is torn. You need to replace the one on Dean Martin Drive right by the offices. We noticed today, that the flag had seen better days. It has a red piece flapping in the wind. It is important to always have flags without tears or too much wear. It’s disrespectful to fly a tattered American flag.

In July, the Stadium Officials have raised the budget to $1.9 billion for the 65,000-seat Las Vegas Stadium being built for the NFL’s relocated Raiders and UNLV football.

The extra $40 Million will result in an additional 20 seats but was not included in the the original budget.

The extra $40 Million was a result of a mistake made back in May 2019; they built at least one truss with parts upside down. The truss mounted on May 1st stalled a million dollar crane for a month and a half. They had to bring in another crane on May 15th from Barnhart. The Barnhart crane reportedly cost $1 million to deliver and $500,000 a month extra to rent.

We all know that parking is an issue at the new Las Vegas Raiders Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. This week its even more of an issue as Las Vegas Paving Corp. paves the parking lots. When completed, we will expect to see the parking lots freshly coated with blacktop. Today, Las Vegas paving was excavating the ground to pour concrete. Concrete will serve as the foundation for the blacktop.