Beaver Stadium’s major renovation is about to start. How OSHA is partnering to ensure safety
Penn State’s final home game of the season means construction on Beaver Stadium’s major renovation will start soon, and officials behind the project are taking a significant step to promote workplace safety.
Contractors behind Beaver Stadium’s upcoming construction and the Harrisburg-area office of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) signed an agreement Thursday to form a strategic partnership. The agreement, which is expected to last the duration of the $700 million renovation project, aims to create a working relationship between OSHA and contractors to prevent work-related injuries and fatalities. It also seeks to develop an effective health and safety program.
Kevin Chambers, area director for OSHA’s Harrisburg-area office, said the scope of Beaver Stadium’s renovations made a partnership with contractors an easy choice.
“It makes sense doing it for a project this size, first of all, because of the length of it,” he said Thursday. “[Construction] will be on and off for a few years, which requires an exceptional degree of discipline and planning to make sure it goes off without a hitch. We’re excited to do it because Beaver Stadium is iconic and internationally recognized, and to be able to promote our mission at the same time while supporting three very solid safety and health-based companies in doing a better job — that’s just a great opportunity.”
The agreement, Chambers said, puts in writing a commitment to complete routine health and safety checks while innovating, finding better solutions and addressing problems as they surface.
Plans for the project, which received final approval in October, will provide new restrooms, upgraded concessions and seating, improved field lighting, a renovated press box and the construction of a new welcome center at Beaver Stadium. Other site work, including hardscape replacement, will help improve circulation and alleviate congestion on stadium concourses and exterior plazas.
Construction plans call for completely separating and removing the stadium’s west sideline structure, though temporary seating will be available to keep Beaver Stadium’s high occupancy intact. Demolition of the western sideline is expected to be completed in two major phases following the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
Beaver Stadium has already received some key upgrades, including the installation of new escalators at gates A and E. Crews worked on the stadium earlier this year to winterize its facilities and prepare it for a potential College Football Playoff game in late December. Just in time, Penn State will face SMU for that very purpose on Saturday.
OSHA’s Harrisburg-area office is currently in a strategic partnership with one other project — the construction of a new WellSpan surgical and critical care tower at York Hospital — but has worked with about a half-dozen such agreements in the last Chambers’ four years with the agency. Nine other strategic partnership agreements are currently in effect through other regional OSHA offices across Pennsylvania, according to agency records.
Chambers said strategic partnerships between OSHA and contractors can raise the floor for workplace health and safety standards and promote safe practices before workers encounter obstacles.
“It’s generally considered that when these types of programs are in place, the quality control goes way up,” Chambers said. “People know that all the routine safety stuff is being taken care of, and [workers] can focus on the trade work. ... At the end of the day, if we can help a company help their employees and eliminate the need for [OSHA] to enforce something, that’s a huge win.”
Through the partnership, OSHA officials will routinely visit Beaver Stadium’s construction site for non-enforcement verification checks. In essence, experts will walk the site, look for issues, read reports and talk to workers about their experiences on the job. Workers will remain involved in self-audits, site inspections, job hazard analysis, health and safety reviews, training and accident or near-miss reporting.
Scott Mull, senior director at Barton Malow Builders, one of the project’s contractors, said the partnership with OSHA should help workers feel committed to safe practices without added pressure.
“As we’re planning our work, it’s an assurance to each other,” he said of the agreement. “It’s not policing, but a partnership — complete transparency for our team and our trades that ensures we’re planning the safest work possible.”
State College-based Alexander Building Construction Co. and Barton Malow Builders will serve as the construction management team for Beaver Stadium’s planned renovations, alongside AECOM Hunt.
Mull said work will begin on Beaver Stadium’s renovations as soon as Sunday once fans clear out after Penn State’s postseason game. Final plans for the project say the renovations are expected to finish in 2027 before the start of that year’s football season.
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