The $80-million expansion and renovation of TD Garden in Boston featured nine different projects—each with their own set of subcontractors and own deadlines to meet—during a 10-month period. 

The 157,000-sq-ft project, along with sweeping renovation work, also saw the addition of 50,000 sq ft of new space. The addition created a “front door” for the TD Garden while also providing space for several new restaurants and amenity spaces. 

The arena itself also received a significant upgrade with the addition of theater-like seating and hundreds of broadcasting monitors.

Undertaking major construction work on an active sports and entertainment hub, the project team faced and overcame a number of significant planning and logistical challenges. 

In addition to each of the nine different projects having different subcontractors, each shared limited loading dock and freight elevator space. 

To further complicate things, each of these projects were located in various parts of all nine levels of the arena, which remained in full operation throughout the construction process.

Gilbane used advanced planning and scheduling (AP&S) techniques—including pull planning and weekly schedule reporting—to keep the sprawling and complex project firmly on track.

A master schedule monitored the progress of each subcontractor as well as areas of work that overlapped between the nine different projects.

Armed with this information, the scheduling team was able to produce a “heat map” that illustrated each project’s work as it progressed level by level and week by week.

As a result, the project team was able to coordinate work on the nine projects with staff at TD Garden operations, the NHL, the New England Sports Network, the Bruins, the Celtics and the MBTA, which runs a major commuter rail station at the site. 

At the peak of the project, hundreds of tradespeople were on site, with all of the projects undergoing concurrent Boston Inspectional Services Dept. reviews on multiple shifts.

The extensive planning enabled the project team to meet an aggressive deadline set by the arena’s owners, which called for completion in time for the Bruin’s home opener in October.

The project team was able to meet that timetable even as the amount of time available to work on the project shrank, with the Bruins season having been extended by a trip to the Stanley Cup finals and by two weeks of concerts at the arena as well.

One judge was impressed that even though it was a “huge, complex project that had strict schedule timelines and all the ongoing construction work within the facility, it remained open while they were doing all of that.”   

“All of  the coordination that had to take place is what really stood out to me with this project,” the judge added.

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