Orchard Park, N.Y. (WBEN) - Understand this about the new, $2.5 billion Highmark Stadium currently under construction in Orchard Park: It is big.
"It is a generational project," said Steve Ranalli, Erie County Stadium Corp. president.
Development price tag alone, consider some of these facts about the stadium:
- Two acres - That's how much specially grown and pristine Kentucky bluegrass will make up the playing field. It is the same Kentucky bluegrass found at such venues as Fenway Park in Boston.
- The underground piping and control systems will keep the field in the low 60s during the entire Buffalo Bills' season, but may be adjusted downward afterwards, Ranalli said.
- There are 18 miles of tubing underneath the bluegrass. That's roughly the same distance as between the Getzville neighborhood in Amherst to Downtown Buffalo.
- 24,000 tons of steel have been erected through early October.
- More than 600,000 cubic yards of soil have been removed from the site.
- Approximately 18,000 yards of concrete was poured just for the stadium's foundation.
- There are 1,200 construction workers on site.
"By all accounts, it is very complicated project," Ranalli said.
Related
