Red Bull Arena Report

Howdy all,
I went to the site this morning and let me tell you something … with the south half of the office/press/locker/club section almost complete, standing near it, you can really start to get the feel of scale on this thing. Even from the street. We are going to be RIGHT on top of the field. No question! It will be like a basketball arena with a full size football pitch in the middle.

A couple of observations to assist webcam viewers. - AWESOME, drool-inducing pictures to be posted on SoccerStop Shortly.

1) Yes, the webcam is located atop the peak of the big brick warehouse. Duh, but I thought I’d confirm.

2) The black footprint seen being laid down on FRI is indeed blacktop/asphalt. Looks to be the ground cover UNDER the first level seating risers. Odd that it’s blacktop rather than concrete. Hmmm - we’ll see what comes of it.

3) There is a second, even larger crane on site with a jointed derrick. Probably not the right term, but oh well.
a. It is located on the west boundary of the filed and looks to be in place to start placing the SEATING RISER STEEL THAT IS ON SITE!!!!! For the press seating risers. (Green tint steel on flatbeds in pics on SoccerStop.
b. For those still questioning – the sister stadium in Austria has steel risers supporting preformed concrete step-tiered seating sections. If you’ve ever looked underneath the upper decks at giants Stadium … same deal.

4) It looks like some of the contractor buildings on the west of the site have moved/shifted location. May be due to increased work on the southwest corner footings.

5) The area at the bottom left of the webcam – the northeast section of the const site has a ton of new, large-diameter oval sewage / water pipes ready for some sort of connection – ( I’m assuming, I’m not a plumber) to the mains serving that area of Harrison.

6) There are approx 8 flatbeds on site piled high with steel. Both for the completion of the framework of the main building, PLUS the green primer steel angled risers for what I’m assuming are the first / field rows of the press section seating which Is located at the foot of the main building.
a. I would imagine the main building will be framed out by Monday Afternoon, Tuesday midday.

7) the majority of the floors of the North section of the building have had the corrugated metal flooring in place awaiting the concrete pour atop them. I did not see a concrete pum crane on site, but if one is seen next week, that’s what will be going on. Probably won’t happen until ALL of the building frame is complete.

8) The Commercial / Residential area of the larger site to the west of the stadium, looks to have some minor grading activity going on – closest to the warehouse buildings, that will NOT be torn down. I’ll wager those are going to one day be loft / luxury apartments or an indoor park / plaza for shopping – think food mall. - FYI

9) FYI - the FO seems to be spreading around the ad dollars. Both sides of the Harrison PATH platform ( and in the lower station and walkways) have every billboard filled w/ the RB campaign.
I'm assuming it will be there for all of Sept, similar to how they did the same thing in Hoboken PATH terminal for all of AUG.

- MR. Dies (ajd123.com)