The Alamance County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to reallocate school bond funds to repair and upgrade the Hugh M. Cummings High School stadium bleachers.
Greg Hook, chief operations officer for the Alamance-Burlington School System, told the commissioners the total cost of upgrading and repairing the stadium bleachers would be roughly $325,000. County officials had already allocated $32,000 to Cummings High School for other capital projects, which brought the total school bond allocation approved by the commissioners to $357,000.
The bleacher project will include installation of kickboards and foundation improvements that will bring the bleachers on both the home and visitor sides of Cummings’ football stadium up to state building code standards, Hook said.
The N.C. Department of Public Instruction requires that bleachers comply with state building codes, which dictate bleacher structures containing more than five rows be anchored to a continuous structural footing. A concrete slab at least 4 inches thick must also extend under the full footprint of bleacher structures and have all-metal supports affixed to the concrete foundation. In addition, bleachers must be made of all-steel construction and designed to provide lateral bracing in the support frames in both directions.
During Thursday’s budget work session, Hook said the bleacher upgrade project would include the installation of metal beams that will attach to the concrete footers beneath the structure. Those metal beams will be affixed to the vertical metal supports that are part of the original structure.
Hook said that the repairs should be complete in time for the Cummings Cavaliers football team’s home opener versus Eden Morehead on Aug. 23.
