The municipality and Spanish contractors agreed for a later delivery date. First two stands of the new stadium are to be ready by the end of June, though they were due… last week. Gazeta.pl reports.

Yesterday the municipal ‘Stadion Miejski’ company and Spanish contractor OHL met with the press in quite unique surroundings – inside the concrete stands of what will become Bialystok’s new stadium. But they weren’t only presenting some of the 16 skyboxes being done at the ground.

The main reason was informing the public that works will unfortunately take much longer than expected. Instead of last week, first two stands (to accommodate 9,000 people) are now expected to be ready by the end of June.

Fot: es12077

Fot: es12077

The delay is thought to be caused solely by insolvency of then general contractor Hydrobudowa. This Polish construction giant fell victim of post-Euro 2012 crisis along with many other companies. OHL initially wasn’t the leader on site, but took over after Hydrobudowa.

What made things difficult was that even after insolvency Hydrobudowa was still assuring they will carry on. They changed the decision when it proved too much for the company, now defunct. This meant that OHL had to find subcontractors and wait for the bankruptcy trustee to release some parts of the contract.

If everything goes along plans from now on, the stands will be available from the start of 2013/14 season. To achieve this, Spanish builders need to finish the roof by mid-April as only after delivery of the heavy steel trusses some works may be done around the stadium.

After delivery of the 9,000 seats, OHL will have 1 year to build the rest of the new stadium. This means in 2014 Ekstraklasa side Jagiellonia should already move in to the new 22,500-seater.