In a letter to supporters chairwoman Ann Budge announced further works on Tynecastle expansion. Piling and excavation is expected to begin next week.

The new east stand of Tynecastle is expected to be ready in September, so it’s high time to get going. However, Heart of Midlothian FC already ran a significant first step, which we haven’t covered on StadiumDB. Let’s make it up first.

On February 9 the club officials and hundreds of fans watched two crawler cranes lift the 85-ton main roof truss of the new east stand above its aged predecessor. Now, though without the rest of the roof yet, the truss already fits well with those of three other stands. Just see that below:

“Naturally, we instantly moved on to the next set of challenges and many of you will have seen that all of the extensions at the rear of the main stand have now been demolished, that new access routes/arrangements have been put in place, and that the preparation work for the next stage is now well underway...with "Piling" due to start this week....to be followed immediately with the major excavation works”, chairwoman Ann Budge wrote in a special message to Hearts’ supporters.

Budge said previously that she expects the current 17,400 capacity to be unaffected while the work takes place. Once the £12 million expansion is ready later this year, crowd sizes of 20,000+ should be possible at Tynecastle.

Interestingly, Hearts also commissioned a new field from industry leaders SIS Pitches. But that’s not the most interesting part. Here it is: it’s the first field relaying in 18 years!

© Heart of Midlothian FC