Many of you who have used Interstate 394 in and out of Minneapolis have watched the Target Field construction site transform from a really big hole in the ground into a place that looks more like a ballpark each day.
After joining a team of Star-Tribune staffers for a tour of the site today, it even felt like a ballpark.
It’s difficult to understand just how massive the project is until you stand inside. Several cranes moved simultaneously as we weaved through some of the 450 workers who are on the project - that number will swell to 850 by next summer.
Concrete for each level of the park has been poured, allowing us to get views of from several vantage points - including an impressive view of downtown Minneapolis from the third base side. The light rail station is in place. Steel that will form many of the restraints and clubs is in place. The Twins’ clubhouse looks about four times bigger than the one at the Dome.
And rising among a mass of construction materials that flood what will be the field are a flagpole where the pitcher’s mound will be and a marker where home plate will be located. It wasn’t hard to imagine Joe Nathan throwing to Joe Mauer as the Twins try to close out a game on Opening Day 2010
Other noteworthy things:

• 14 trains a day roll by the ballpark.
• Seats will be installed around the first of the year.
• The Twins next week will announce their deal with the company that will assemble  and install the scoreboard - which will be nine times bigger than the one at the Dome.
• The playing field must be installed by August, so it will have time to take root before things go dormant in October.
• There’s a terrace that’s a stone’s throw from the incinerator - and we didn’t smell a thing.
• The Twins are brainstorming about ways to dress up the parking ramp that will hover behind right field.
• A Twins official said that the Gophers’ TCF Bank Stadium is going to be outstanding. “They are doing it the right way over there,” he said.

Come back to www.startribune.com later today to check out a video presentation about our trip to the construction site.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 1:38 pm and is filed under Random thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.