Brownsville’s Sams Memorial Stadium healthy, but needs attention

Sams Memorial Stadium got a clean bill of health at a Brownsville ISD Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday, but some work on the facility is needed.

“Sams Stadium is safe, it’s stable. It has plenty of service life to continue to contribute to your programmatic needs. It needs some maintenance and it needs some capital expenditure, but your students, your staff, your public is safe to continue to occupy Sams Stadium,” structural engineer Roland Rubiano told the board, summarizing a report about the stadium’s structural condition.

Green, Rubiano & Associates conducted a structural analysis of Sams over several months, inspecting the stadium element by element and unit by unit with help from the district’s facilities department.

Rubiano said the inspection found a railing along the stadium’s west wall that is rusting out and losing connection, in addition to several areas where concrete is falling away leaving rebar exposed and corroding. Potential falling concrete has been removed.

“It’s a large structure and the repairs that are needed are intrusive, so we’ll have to manage that in a phased fashion. … We don’t need you to scramble, but we do need you to start planning,” he said.

The board is in the process of planning next year’s budget, so some of the items Rubiano highlighted could be included in the budget. Rubiano also suggested instituting a regular inspection and maintenance schedule.

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