Raiders Stadium Adds a Third Shift Due to Truss Delay

A full crew working Tuesday morning at midnight June 18th, 2019.

Worker work on Father’s Day to put this truss back in place. This truss had to be taken down on Thursday June 13th due to faulty design. It was originally installed on May 14th.

By: JediJoy Lightowler

The Raiders Stadium at this point is still set to open on July 30, 2020. This week, they added more shifts to finish on time. The official opening is set to be done before Pre Season 2020. It makes it crucial to open that day or a couple days after. They have around a 6 day window before Pre Season games start, if it gets pushed back at all. That’s not much wiggle room. Hence why it is now necessary to add a third shift to finish on time.

It took a month for the crew to decide what to do with these trusses. They originally lifted the truss that was taken down on May 14, 2019. They finally took down the truss on June 13, 2019. They at first tried to fix the issues while it was still mounted. They were unable to do that so they had to remove the truss and fix it. This issue had to be resolved before they could finish lifting the remaining trusses.

They replaced the truss on Sunday Father’s Day June 16, 2019. Prior to this month, the crew did not work Sundays. They were able to do other work while they were finding a solution to this problem, but it still caused a delay. A delay does not mean they are opening late, but it does mean they now needed a third shift to open on time.

This is what I would call the definition of a setback or delay. This issue costs Mortenson/McCarthy everyday they were not able to lift the trusses since it pushed back other projects. Each project crew relies on the other crews to finish on time, so they can start on time. Not being able to add any more trusses for a month while they came up with a solution, pushed back the other crews. For example the glass crew has been delayed. They will hopefully get caught back up with the new shifts.

This is why they are now working all Sundays and all day and night! They had a full crew for the first time on Sunday, Father’s Day. This is not ideal, considering NFL is family centric. I’m sure Mark Davis wanted the crew to be home with their families on Father’s Day. This was not possible, due to the truss debacle.

People have argued with us online, that they are not behind. They are behind, that’s why they finally went to third shift. Mortenson/McCarthy did not want to add a third shift because that extra money comes out of their pocket and profit. They did this as a last resort. Now is the last resort.

There is a huge amount of stress currently around this project. You can feel the negative energy when you go down there. The crew is stressed. Things have not gone even close to as planned. Since the beginning of this project has been lined with issues and road blocks that the teams had to work through.

First, they had funding issues getting this project going. Sheldon Adelson (owner of Sands, Venetian/Palazzo) backed out. He was one of the original investors. He bailed on the project that he was one to the original pushers to get the Raiders to Las Vegas. He bailed when this lot was chosen. This lot was not ideal with its water issues and the fact that’s it is right on the flight course from the airport.

They have had numerous issues they had to overcome. They have flooding issues, parking issues, weather issues, structural issues, design issues, height issues (due to the airport) heat issues, mud issues and now a Truss issue. Of course all of these get resolved, but they take extra time. At this point time is not what the stadium has a lot of 408 days left as of June 18th, 2019.

We love going to the project. We enjoy sharing the updates with everyone. We are not here to make enemies or piss any one off. We speak what we hear and see when we go to the stadium and our source. Like it or not, what we are saying is true. We get the nitty gritty facts from an insider.

Do not shoot the messenger, If our facts are wrong, then the crew is hearing lies. We repeat what we hear from the crew. Continue to stick your heads in the sand and believe the lies fed to you from the people being paid to write what they want you to see. The Jedi are on the grounds making connections and finding facts that we pass onto you folks. If the facts are wrong that we get from a crew member, then the discrepancies are coming from within the stadium crew.

Jedi enjoy sharing art. We are not about creating all this animosity. To be honest I was stunned by the hate for an art project of keeping you all updated who do not live in Las Vegas! We really appreciate those who do support, heart and enjoy our art.