It might not look like much now, but Hamilton County construction crews are moving tons of dirt and pouring dozens of piles to build the foundation for the massive Paul Brown Stadium.
Stadium Project Manager Dan Streyle said Mondaythat he would like to be about three weeks farther along in construction.
This spring's wet weather has slowed the project a bit.
But he said the construction schedule has time built in for bad weather, and crews will make up the time so the stadium can open in August 2000, as planned.
"In the big picture, we're fine," he said.
Mr. Streyle looked out the window of his construction trailer and acknowledged it's difficult to see the progress crews are making. "You have to be patient for a while because almost everything that we're doing for the next three months -- nobody's going to see," he said.
Crews are spending their days drilling holes anywhere from 70 feet to 90 feet deep to pour concrete through a 4-inch-diameter pipe to create the piles that will support the massive structures. The stadium will need nearly 7,000 piles in all, Mr. Streyle said. About 10 percent of the piles are completed, he said.
Once the piles are poured, concrete "caps" will sit on top of the piles to support the stadium, he said.
When crews start building on those caps, the public will see the structure take shape, Mr. Streyle said.
Hamilton County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus, who drives by the site every day on his way home to Delhi Township, sees the foundation work as "sort of a lull part of the construction process from the public standpoint."
Mr. Bedinghaus looks forward to the time in the next six months when the stadium will begin to rise out of the ground. Officials in other communities that have built football stadiums tell him that's when negative feelings from the public begin to melt away. County officials have taken considerable heat for the price of the project -- an estimated $400.3 million for the stadium complex. But with bids for the project coming in lower than the county's estimates, Mr. Bedinghaus is optimistic that the county can complete the stadium on time and maybe even under budget, he said.
