Amphitheater’s progress is already visible downtown
Published 11:33 pm Tuesday, September 18, 2012
It may look like a storm hit the old historic building that is being transformed into the new City Amphitheater, but the construction company is just changing out the roof, trusses and painting the brick. City planners say this is all part of phase one to be completed by January. The project has three phases total. -- Ashley Johnson
August saw the groundbreaking of the long awaited amphitheater downtown off of Water Avenue, which in 2013 or 2014 will see concerts, shows and seat more than 600.
Driving by the amphitheater location today, the construction is visible, but might not look so appealing at first. Charlotte Griffeth, director for the planning and development for the City of Selma, said that what is going on now is phase one.
“We are in phase one, which is the repainting of the brick, the removal and replacing the roofing with new trusses, new decking and new roofing,” Griffeth said.
During this phase passer-byers might notice the roof on the historic building crushed in, but Griffeth said that is only because they are replacing the roof and the trusses.
“When you see the roof, the decking is gone now and you see the trusses exposed,” Griffeth said. “Next week they will start lifting those old deteriorated trusses off and then we will come back a couple of weeks later with a new set of trusses designed by a truss company right here in the state of Alabama.”
Phase one is the first out of three, Griffeth said, and this current phase is contracted for 120 days, plus or minus some rain and weather delays. So by January, when phase one is complete, Griffeth said the progress should be visible.
“You should be able to see the opening painted and the new trusses and new roof will be done and the concrete block portion of the building removed so that the arches in all of the building are exposed,” Griffeth said about the completion of phase one.
She also said that the two-story portion of the amphitheater’s walls would go up and the other walls would be completely redone.
As for the other parts of the construction, phase two, which is expected to start in February, will include the building of the stage house and restrooms for the facility. Phase three will include the seating.
“So far everything is on track, but you never know when you are working with historic buildings. But so far everything looks good and we are on schedule so far,” Griffeth said.
