The Arlington School District is making improvements to the Haller Middle School stadium site. The first round of improvements included replacing 60-foot-tall lighting poles. Next week over spring break, crews from Ascendant LLC will remove the bleacher structures from the Haller Middle School Stadium site as part of the improvement program.
Inspection of the wooden bleachers in 2022 revealed extensive structural deficiencies that made the bleachers a hazard to use. District staff closed off the bleachers from public use and continued evaluating them for other hazards and the potential for repairing or rebuilding. That evaluation concluded that:
• To make repairs to the original construction, the bleachers would have required partial demolition (removing the roof structures) in order to access the areas of structural deficiencies.
• Repairing the bleachers would trigger code compliance for electrical service and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility.
• There is extensive presence of hazardous materials like asbestos and lead paint that would require mitigation (removal and disposal) in order to perform the repairs on the more than 60-year-old bleachers.
District staff ultimately decided to remove the bleachers as a public hazard and replace them with aluminum bleachers more appropriately sized for the current nature of the stadium’s use.
“The district’s capital program goals include extending the useful life of school buildings when feasible,” said Brian Lewis, Arlington Public Schools Executive Director of Operations. “Unfortunately, the bleachers would have required extensive repairs. We want to provide a safe and healthy environment for students, staff and the community and demolishing the deficient structures and replacing them with newer, low maintenance, ADA-accessible and code compliant aluminum bleachers will provide that safe and healthy environment and protect the community’s investment in public facilities.”
The demolition phase is expected to be completed by the second week of April and replacement bleachers are planned to be installed this August.