Stockton Steel Company Feels Full-Court Press On Sacramento Kings Arena Roof Job
STOCKTON (CBS13) — The finishing touches on the roof of the Sacramento Kings Golden 1 Center are underway, putting construction crews in Stockton under pressure to get the job done.
When you step into Schuff Steel in Stockton, you better bring some ear plugs. Like Kings fans, it's loud and proud here.
"It's a monumental project. We've been working on it for about two months straight," said plant manager Eddie Jones.
Schuff is building the framework for the massive roof for the Golden 1 Center in downtown Sacramento. They have a couple of days to get it done, and it's a lot of steel.
"They're about 360 feet long," he said. "We build them in three sections and each section weighs about 100,000 pounds."
The Kings could have chosen any steel company in the nation, but instead decided on Schuff. Most of the workers live in the community.
"We have a lot of Kings fans here in the shop," Jones said. "They wore their jerseys when they started working on the project so they're really excited about it."
The 50-mile trek from Stockton to Sacramento presents a big challenge.
"It takes about two and half days almost three days because they can only travel so fast and they can only travel at night," he said.
Jones says when the work is finally done and he's sitting with fans in the stands, don't expect him to pay too much attention to the score.
"I'm very critical of my steel or the company's steel," he said. "But I usually spend more time looking at the steel around me than I do the game."
