BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Hamilton County officials are about halfway there when it comes to awarding contracts for the Bengals' new riverfront football stadium.
A package of 10 contracts that county commissioners will award in coming weeks will bring total contracts issued to about 50 percent of the stadium's total construction cost, said Brooke Hill, a spokesperson for the project.
Those 10 contracts alone are worth about $85 million and represent 20 percent of the project's construction costs, she said.
So far, the bids have come in slightly under the county's construction estimates, which county Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus considers something of a victory.
"It's an important place to sort of take a step back and look at where we are and how things are going," he said. "At the 50 percent mark, we appear to be on budget and on schedule."
The 10 contracts to be awarded include more than $43 million worth of concrete work, in addition to steel work, flood protection and loading-dock equipment.
In coming weeks, the stadium construction will become more visible as the foundation work is completed and it begins to rise from the ground.
Already, crews are nearly finished pouring concrete for a new Pete Rose Way that will curve around Paul Brown Stadium's northern end.
The $404 million stadium complex is scheduled for completion in August 2000. That price tag includes the stadium, land, site preparation, consulting fees and the team's three riverfront practice fields.
Local companies have won 77 percent of the contracts, and 93 percent of the work has gone to union companies, Ms. Hill said.
