A gridiron of another sort is being installed some 120 feet over Ford Field, the new home of the Detroit Lions.

Roofers Local 149 members and Schreiber Roofing are in the monotonous process of installing 4x10-foot sections of dens-deck decking sheets atop the 18-guage sheet metal deck - along with foam insulation sections, and topped by a sea of PVC membrane to make it all watertight. All told, 320,000 square-feet of roof will be covered, keeping Ford Field and its players and patrons high and dry.

"This type of roofing system has been out for 25 years, so it's proven itself, and it's nothing special," said Darrell Wiegert, a foreman for Schreiber. "We put it on the Ren Cen, on the Jefferson North assembly plant, and on a bunch of other buildings. They're not going to have a problem with it."

Many people with a casual interest in the stadium still wonder whether the roof will be retractable, or whether any of it will be open to the weather, such as the Dallas Cowboys' stadium. The answer on both counts is no - it will be a conventional, fixed roof. But the roof is interesting from a design standpoint: it has a sloped 30-degree pitch up from the center of the stadium down to the northern edge.

"The closer you get to the edge, the steeper it gets," Wiegert said. "And the roof can get pretty slick when it's raining, so we have to be careful." He said if there were any more pitch in the roof, safety harnesses would have to be worn. A four-foot high "gutter" barrier on the edge of the stadium provides a welcome margin of safety.

The crew of roofers has been as high as 35, but lately has been about 25. Whether permitting, the roof is scheduled for completion on July 8, and the $500 million stadium itself is scheduled to open Aug. 24 for a Lions pre-season football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"We have a good crew, and they're doing very good work," said Schreiber General Foreman Dave Lafferty. He said bringing materials up to the roof is difficult because of an awkward access design, "but overall, we're happy. It's been an interesting 
job."

A CREW OF ROOFERS from Local 149 and Schreiber Roofer apply the PVC membrane atop the Ford Field roof - the membrane is similar in form and function to a pool liner.