Five months into the project, the construction site of the Buffalo Bills’ new stadium may just look like a big hole in the ground, but down below in that opening there are hundreds of workers building the foundation for the more visible and larger-scale work that lies ahead.
A few weeks ago, a steady stream of truckers began moving in and out of the site, pouring concrete that sets the stage to build the steel frame of the $1.7 billion stadium in Orchard Park. Steel will come onto the site in February and workers will start erecting the skeleton of the stadium soon afterward, taking at least a year to complete.
That’s when the project will start to look like more than a big hole in the ground.
“I think that’s when it will get fun for folks and they’ll start stopping by more to look and gawk,” said Steve Ranalli, president of the Erie County Stadium Corp., the state entity overseeing the compliance and oversight of the project. “Once that steel comes up next year, I think people will really see the stadium take shape.”
Ranalli, who is almost nine months into his new role after heading the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. for five years, has a front-row seat to the project. The Stadium Corp., which essentially will divvy out the $850 million in public money going toward the stadium construction over the course of the three-year project, has its local offices next door to the construction site at the former Department of Motor Vehicles office on the campus of ECC South.
“It’s an economic development project – the economic impact the Bills have on the community is impressive – but we all know it’s psychological too,” he said. “I saw that on the waterfront as well, but this is an even bigger project.”
Because the new stadium is one of the biggest projects ever in Western New York, it’s also been heavily scrutinized and reaching goals to involve the local community, including women, minority and…
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