Everton's stadium development director Colin Chong has described what fans can expect to see at Bramley-Moore Dock over the coming months, and how weather conditions could potentially play a factor in the near future.
The Blues have now been hard at work at the waterfront site for over a year, having first broken ground in August 2021. Already the project has completed a huge transformation in the past 12 months on the way to a 52,888-seater stadium rising up, and that is set to continue.
The club's stadium development director has regularly updated supporters with what has been happening on the site and took the recent anniversary of breaking ground as an opportunity to do the same again. After looking back at what has already been achieved, his long blog looked ahead to the future - including a stark reminder of one particular difficulty that the club must be prepared for in the coming years.
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He wrote: "We are nearly one third of the way through the build, but we are not patting ourselves on the back or resting on our laurels. We still have a couple of winters to get through and in the meantime we need to get a lot of the high-level lifting activities done whilst the weather allows.
"As you’d expect, we, we can’t operate at high levels with strong winds. But we have analysed a lot of historical weather data to make predictions and plans, and Laing O’Rourke have a lot of data from their previous projects as to when weather conditions require them to suspend lifting activity to ensure operations are completed safely. This insight allows us to build accurate timelines for the project."
Chong also described what supporters should expect to see over the coming 12 months as the exterior of the build really begins to take shape. Already the framework of the stands is visible from multiple areas of the city, but this time next year it will undoubtedly look wildly different once more.
The stadium development director has given the latest updates to fans on how they can expect the concrete terracing to progress, when the roof with be put into place and why two of the stands will take longer to complete than the others.
"The first terracing units have gone on to the steelwork and that alone will start to create a visual change as the gaps between steel are filled with concrete and the stadium’s bowl takes shape," he added.
"Supporters will probably be able to see the whole upper tier of concrete terracing installed in the next six months, apart from the East Stand which is used for site access and will be the last to complete. The lower tier terracing units will follow, once the roof steel is in place.
"The roof will no doubt be the most visual milestone moment. I am conscious that we are hostages to fortune with the wind. These are huge, expensive pieces of steel and aluminium cladding, manufactured in segments and they need installing in a certain sequence, starting with the north and south stands.
"I imagine we will start to see sections of the roof in place in the Spring of next year.
"The East and West stands are predominantly concrete builds, and they give stability to the whole scheme, so they will take longer to complete than the North and South. Then you have all the mechanical, electrical and plumbing services in those stands, so eventually, around a year from now, we will reach a point where, from the outside, few changes will be visible as all the work will be going on inside.
"Finally, the latticed brickwork that will form the external façade will start to be erected, possibly later this year and in various locations.
"By the time the external façade is in place, people will really begin to be able to make out the final form that our jaw-dropping new stadium will take. "
Everton's new home is one of the biggest projects being undertaken in the city right now and Chong is under no illusion as to how important it will be in years and years to come.
He concluded: "This is a quality build. The groundworks and dock infill are industry-leading, steel is marine grade quality, the concrete is designed to resist marine moisture and everything about this stadium is built to last. An awful lot of the cost goes into that, and people won’t see it, but this is a robust engineering product that is going to be the future for generations of Everton fans.
"We have the job, not only getting it right for them, but also ensuring our city has a Fourth Grace to be proud of."
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