|
Ironworker
Ambrose Steah, who has been in the business since he was 18,
places bolts onto the infield cross beams recently in Atlanta,
while working on the new home the Atlanta Falcons, the Mercedes-Benz
Stadium.
|
Window Rock, AZ High in the sky and walking on six-inch
steel beams is where ironworker Ambrose Steah, 33, keeps things
in perspective: A better life for his kids. The single father of
two has been "dancing with death," as he put it, since he was 18
years old.
He's on the road nine months out of the year, sometimes longer.
But that doesn't bother him despite long stints of doing everything
alone.
Even working long hours doesn't seem to bother him, said the
2001 Blue Ridge (Lakeside, Arizona) Yellowjacket graduate.
It's this hard work ethic that got him to Atlanta nine months
ago to "be part of history" and help complete the future home of
the Atlanta Falcons the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Like his father who etched his mark in history 19 years ago
by helping to build the former Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Steah
wants to do the same thing.
Cranes with booms extending hundreds of feet into the air are
dwarfed by the size of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The
new stadium is the future home of the Atlanta Falcons.
And just as his father, Johnson Steah, took him on a tour of
the Arizona Diamondbacks new home (now called Chase Field) after
it was completed in 1998, he intends to fulfill his dream of one
day taking his kids on a similar tour.
"My dad worked on Bank One stadium in Phoenix. He's the one
who got me into cranes," Steah said. "Like my father did for me,
I want to tell them I was part of this build."
But to make what he calls "the impossible, possible," Steah
has no delusions and knows that hard work will make his vision come
true.
"I'm here, seven days a week, at 6 a.m., on the jobsite ready
to work for 12 or more hours straight," Steah said. "I carry my
40 to 60 pounds of tools and start climbing those stairs because
my worksite is about 450 feet off the ground."
|
Cranes
with booms extending hundreds of feet into the air are dwarfed
by the size of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The new
stadium is the future home of the Atlanta Falcons.
|
Working so high, Steah says he understands the risks tied to
his profession.
"Ironworkers, we are not masters of the sky," he said. "We are
up there before the sun rises, doing what needs to be done. I understand
that at any moment I could slip it could be my last slip."
Dangling hundreds of feet in the sky, though dangerous, is not
the first thing that enters your mind, Steah said. To get him through
a tough day, he said he thinks of his two children, Savannah, 16,
and Skyler, 15.
|