The renovation of the Livestock Pavilion, also called the Coliseum, at the Indiana State Fairgrounds that closed the building during the 2013 Indiana State Fair is running ahead of schedule. Justin Armstrong with the Indiana State Fair staff says it should be completed in late spring.
While the exact date is still up in the air, he's confident that it will be soon enough before the 2014 Indiana State Fair that the fair won't be the first event in the newly remodeled facility. The original plan was that the building would be finished in late July in time for the fair.
In fact, Cindy Hoye, executive director of the Indiana State Fair, says they have offered the facility to the Angus Association for the 2014 National Junior Angus Show which would be held there in July.
Currently, contractors are putting back the inside of the coliseum so it's starting to take shape, except for the seats. The building was completely gutted so that they could start from scratch. All that remained at one time was the outer structure of the building itself.
Stairways are back in each corner, and the shafts for two large elevators that will be accessible to the public are in place. Workers last week were laying the floor that will then be covered by three to four miles of pipe, then covered with concrete. The pipe is part of the system that will be used to make ice for hockey events in the building.
One feature that was put back in place was the famous inside wall that separates the coliseum floor from the seats. Livestock people insisted on having it back. Some who saw it during the fair believed it was much higher and would no longer be as useful. However, Armstrong points out that it was deceiving because they had not yet built up the floor. Hoye says that when the project is finished, the wall will only be three to six inches taller above coliseum floor level that it was before.