Construction work on Emporia State’s Welch Stadium began on Monday, Feb. 12 according to ESU Internal Communications. Construction is occurring on the seating areas west of the stadium. 

“The work being done has a dual purpose,” said Gwen Larson, Director of Marketing and Internal Communications. She explained that since laying the seating area concrete there has been “settling” and the concrete needs to be re-laid. The contractor for this project is Mitchell Marckowitz, an on-call contractor for ESU. 

The other purpose of this construction is to add railings to the aisles between the bleachers. However, Larson said that the current walkways are too narrow to install these, so the bleachers will be replaced to accommodate this. Additionally, they are adding additional reserved seating.

Approximate costs for all aspects of the project is just under $673,000 but “may increase as review of existing concrete continues.”

The notice sent from Internal Communications indicated that most of the construction will take approximately two weeks to complete. During construction, the sidewalk along the southwest corner of Welch Stadium will have “limited access” as “there will be equipment, dumpsters, and construction traffic” in and out of the west side.

During this time, access to the track and field is still available for athletics, except for the west straight track.

Bleacher replacement will be complete before ESU hosts the NCAA Division II Track & Field Championship in March; afterwards, the new reserved seating will be added.