Construction of a 22,400-seat stadium in north-eastern Poland came to a stop last year. Now that new contractor has been chosen, the ground should be ready within 21 months – 90Minut.pl reveals.

Stadion Miejski w Białymstoku (Białystok Municipal Stadium) is under construction since mid-2010. However Works were brought to a stop last year when municipality and initial contractor, French company Eiffage, ended cooperation. Growing delays, construction errors and attempts to modify the design by contractor were said to be among main reasons.

Since then Białystok municipality was trying to resume construction which is finally possible, after recent tender brought a new contract, signed yesterday with joint-venture of Hydrobudowa Polska (Poland) and OHL (Spain). Both companies will first have to correct faulty parts of two stands that are already under construction. Then comes a 9-month period to finish the two L-shaped stands, which means local club Jagiellonia may be ready to welcome fans to the new sections in Spring 2013.

As construction was divided into 2 phases to allow constant use of the ground for football, Hydrobudowa and OHL have to wait with erecting remaining parts of the bowl until Jagiellonia move their supporters to the new seats next year.

Final cost is yet to be determined and depends on the outcome of lawsuit the municipality filed against Eiffage. To date, however, the Eiffage contract had cost app. 150m zloty and new one with Hydrobudowa/OHL another 253m zloty, totaling around 400m zloty (€92m).