Delays could prove costly for DNC

This week's delay in transforming the FleetCenter for the upcoming Democratic National Convention leaves organizers and construction crews with little time to waste.

The Democrats and the FleetCenter blocked out 48 days to prepare the arena for the four-day convention, which begins July 26. It is unclear how much leeway, if any, is built into that schedule: The Democratic National Convention Committee and Shawmut Design and Construction, which is overseeing the project, declined to comment yesterday.

When Shawmut won the convention job in January, Shawmut vice president James Stukel described it as ''a complex and time-sensitive project."

Several hundred workers are supposed to lay about 4,000 miles of video and audio cable, add 500 tons of extra air-conditioning coolant, and install hundreds of electrical outlets. To make room for the roughly 30-by-90-foot platform that will be the center of the action, they will have to remove as many as 2,000 seats from the arena's lower tier.

Workers also have to build about 20 temporary offices in the loading area near the locker rooms and lay about 21,000 square feet of carpeting. They will take down the ceilings and walls to convert some of the arena's 104 executive suites into miniature studios for the television networks, and construct two media work areas on either side of the platform.

Other reporters will be housed in a huge tent next to the FleetCenter. Building the tent was to begin this week, but the project stalled when a crane and a cement truck were turned back by the picket line in front of the arena.

Even if the FleetCenter can be retrofitted in time for the convention, this week's delay could end up boosting costs if workers have to work overtime to finish the job.

Convention organizers were planning to host 600 members of the national media next week, to discuss logistics and show off the construction in and around the FleetCenter. Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe was expected to attend. It was unclear yesterday if the media gathering would still take place.

FleetCenter officials say it's up to the Democrats to make sure the site is ready for their party.

''As of eight o'clock [Monday] morning, we officially turned over the keys to the DNCC," Jim Delaney, FleetCenter's director of marketing and public relations, said yesterday. ''We're in essence just the landlord, and they've rented the building starting June 8 through Aug. 13, the date we get the building back from them."

Scott Greenberger can be reached at greenberger@globe.com.