No Time to Rest in the Homestretch

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Stadium Races Toward Opening Day

In the time since officials formally broke ground on the Washington Nationals' new stadium, the ballpark has risen steadily along the Anacostia River in Southeast Washington.

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Fans without season ticket spaces can park at RFK Stadium for free and take free shuttles to the ballpark. For those who drive, that could be the best option. City officials announced new parking restrictions last week to keep fans from parking on neighborhood streets during games.

For months, officials have been promoting Metro as the best way to get to the ballpark. The Navy Yard Station, on the Green Line, is a block north of the stadium and is being renovated to accommodate expected crowds. Metro is tripling the station's capacity so that it can handle 15,000 passengers an hour.

While work continued last week at the Metro station, construction supervisors led building inspectors through the ballpark. They checked safety equipment, including smoke and fire alarms and emergency generators. Food safety inspectors have begun looking over kitchens, too.

Shiny stainless steel refrigerators and stoves are being installed to serve the concession stands. And, perhaps most important for a good many fans, in the subterranean service floors, two giant beer coolers are in place.

In addition to sprucing up the stands for the majority of the crowd, crews are wrapping up work on the luxury suites. The suites are painted and being furnished, and fancy light fixtures hang from the ceilings of the bar for the high-rollers, located behind home plate.

Construction crews have set priorities to maximize their impact. Work on some offices for Nationals executives on the south side of the ballpark, for example, is slightly behind schedule. That is mainly so that all areas that fans will see can be completed.

Soon the construction workers will give way to the people who will staff the ballpark -- the ticket-takers, ushers, concessions workers and others whose performance in the first few weeks will be crucial to giving fans an experience befitting the splashy new facility. The Nationals have recruited hundreds of workers through job fairs and have begun training them.

The college game will be a dress rehearsal allowing many of those employees to practice their jobs without the crush of fans that will come when the Nationals arrive.

The March 30 game against Atlanta will be broadcast on ESPN, and the national audience will get a taste of Washington thanks to camera angles designed to capture the view of the Capitol dome just over the left-field horizon.

Part of that view, beyond the outfield, will include a spread of cherry trees, a Washington signature, that the team hopes to plant in the coming days. The planting has been delayed mainly by the recent cold snap.

Mostly, now, it's about the final touches and cleanup. In the final days before the college game and the opening weekend, "we'll be cleaning," said Ronnie Strumpf, the Clark Construction vice president who has been in charge of day-to-day construction.

Workers will give extra attention to the plaza on the ballpark's north side, which will be where most fans enter. Late last week, crews were building a concession stand just inside the ticket gates.