Orchard Park, N.Y. (WBEN) - Progress continues to be made toward building a new state-of-the-art football stadium for the Buffalo Bills along Abbott Road in Orchard Park, across the street from the current facility, Highmark Stadium.
Ground officially broke for the new Highmark Stadium back on June 5 with major excavation work commencing on site with a number of controlled blasts occurring to break up the bedrock underneath the site.
Fast-forward about seven months, and the majority of the mass excavation, at this point, is complete.
"There's still some soil coming out as we're doing other work, but for the most part, the major excavation and removal is complete," said John Polka, vice president of stadium development for the Bills. "For folks who are either driving by on Abbott or here on game days, the walls that you're seeing are steel piles that are driven, and then precast panels that go in those to hold back that excavation so that we can safely complete work inside. And some of the work that's going on inside right now, or the majority of the work or the focus of the work is on the foundation's that are going in preparation for structural steel to start here in the next 30-to-45 days."
As of this time, everything continues to remain on schedule for construction that was originally set out earlier this summer.
"The structural steel is the next major project milestone - setting the first piece of steel and going from there. We're still scheduled for that for the end of January, beginning of February," added Polka.
One helpful factor that has allowed for stadium construction to progress in a timely fashion has been the weather being relatively mild this time of year, as well as a lack of precipitation.
"If we were to pick one year of this project where the weather would be favorable and really help us, it would be this year, just with the work that we've got going on," Polka said. "We've been very fortunate with the weather. Not only has there not been much precipitation of note, but also the temperatures have been favorable as well. Again, knock on wood that the weather holds out, and we continue to make great progress on site."
Going into the start of construction, a major focus for the Bills and crews working to construct the stadium has been community engagement, and ensuring residents around the stadium site, as well as fans coming to Orchard Park for games, are aware of the happenings in-and-around the area.
"That was really important to us going in, knowing there were some concerns and anxiousness from the surrounding community, and then just the community at large on the project," Polka said. "Kelly Seward, who is our manager of new stadium relations, did a great job reaching out to our neighbors around here. Whether that was residents and property owners or businesses, she's been reaching out to them, keeping them informed as progress has gone on, different things that were happening. ... She's just been doing a great job reaching out and keeping them informed of what's going on, and she's also been the point person for any concerns or questions that the neighbors have had."
And Polka gives credit where it is due, as he says residents and other have done their part to reach out to the Bills if there's something they're wondering or worried about.
"I think the relationship has been going great. We haven't had any significant concerns, just some items that folks voiced, 'Hey, what's going on here?' Or, 'Can you tell me what's going on with this?' We've been able to answer them, so things have been going great locally," Polka said. "And then as a more broad community, as the folks have been able to come through the football season and see what's going on site, I think we've gotten some really positive feedback on just the excitement around what's happening across the street here."
Part 2 of WBEN's conversation with Polka about the new Bills stadium construction will be made available on Tuesday...