BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Nine months into construction of the new home for the Buffalo Bills, work on the new Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park is moving ahead as scheduled.
The Erie County Stadium Corporation held its Director's Meeting on Monday and provided an update on the $1.54 billion project.
"It was a great winter, we are happy for that," said Steven Ranalli, President of the Erie County Stadium Corporation. "They are taking advantage of it. At this point, we are saying we are on schedule."
Showcased during the meeting was a new timelapse video of the stadium construction site which details the progress from the groundbreaking last June through last month.
"We are just about done with concrete, early in steel," said Ranalli. "It's interesting. The bowl gets excavated, then the concrete starts to get formed but in order to keep this project on schedule the concrete work is still working while the steel is going up behind it. In the next few months you are really going to see that steel come up from out of the hole."
The stadium corporation also reported significant progress on Gilbane-Turner meeting diverse hiring goals.
The inclusion of minority-owned businesses is currently exceeding the goal of 15%, sitting at 17.4%. There has also been improvement in the inclusion of women-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses at the stadium site.
"I'm inspired," said April Baskin, Chairwoman of the Erie County Legislature. "A year ago we weren't really in this position. We know that the state and the county had to reach out and make some hard demands in terms of structure and accountability on behalf of the Bills but in that time we have seen extreme growth."
It's growth that Baskin believes will only continue as the stadium project moves forward.
"There is only so many people qualified to be there right now to do the work that is being done," said Baskin. "As we start to see the project increase in terms of being built we will start to see more local firms get engaged to be part of the process."
