OK, so the Cowboys stadium episode of Build It Bigger is a bit on the gee-whiz side: It's an "engineering marvel that could revolutionize the Football experience!" And it glosses over the fact that, while the Dallas Cowboys are about to play in "the largest Football stadium in America ... a home befitting their legend," they haven't won a single playoff game since 1996. Ouch.
Beyond that, however, professional architect Danny Forster does an admirable job of exploring the engineering and science "of the world's largest and most complex construction projects" in the new season of Build It Bigger on the Science Channel. First up is a look at the Cowboys' lavish new digs, at 9 p.m. Monday.
For its $1-billion-plus price tag - about three-quarters of which is being financed by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones (who says the most expensive ticket packages cost "$150,000 a seat") - the Arlington palace sports "the steepest retractable roof," the "tallest movable glass doors" and, hanging above the 50-yard line, the "world's largest HD television."
The show is at its best in probing the engineering challenges of putting into place "the two largest interior structural arches on the planet." Forster shows ironworkers hoisting the last of 16 steel trusses, each weighing 160,000 pounds, that will straddle "the stadium's most visible features" - those two enormous steel arches, each one-quarter of a mile long and more than twice the length of the St. Louis arch.
He also pays homage to the down-home dudes making it all happen, ironworkers with deep Texas twangs, who allow Forster extraordinary access. As he stands atop the wind-blown roof, he shows how engineers guard against a Texas tornado. With insight and clarity, he shows how professionalism and skill are pitted against a deadline to complete a task every bit as daunting as winning a Super Bowl.
Build It Bigger
9 p.m. Monday, Science Channel. 1 hr.
