Construction on Providence Park, home to Portland Timbers, has hit a number of milestones as the Major League Soccer franchise prepares for its new enlarged stadium.
A pathway has begun to be constructed with steel and plastic load plates in preparation for a mobile crane to drive onto the field to help build a full sized tower crane next month.
A temporary bridge is also being constructed in the centre of the playing field over the sewer that runs underneath the stadium. The bridge consists of concrete footings, beams, and steel plates, which will sustain the weight of the mobile crane and allow for access over the creek throughout the construction period.
The more than $50m (€46m/£38.8m) expansion project, which is privately funded, is set to add four new levels and approximately 4,000 seats on the east side.
Three of those levels were designed for reserved and group seating sections to help meet demand, while including a pedestrian-friendly public arcade along SW 18th Avenue.
Providence Park, which is also home to National Women’s Soccer League franchise the Portland Thorns, is still undergoing demolition throughout this month to allow for the installation of micropiles.
A 93-foot-high covered structure is also to be added, designed by Portland-based Allied Works Architecture. The vertical expansion design raises the stadium’s capacity to approximately 25,000.
The Timbers have a season-ticket waiting list of more than 13,000 fans and have sold out every regular-season and play-off match at home since the club’s inaugural MLS season in 2011. Providence Park’s existing capacity of 21,144 for soccer currently ranks in the bottom half of the league in terms of size.
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