MILESTONE HERE: CONCRETE POUR

300 truckloads to be delivered to stadium site in next 10 days

Glamour shots of San Diego State’s new Aztec Stadium — the field, stands, luxury suites, club seats, locker rooms and the like — remain artist renderings, with the real thing still several months from becoming reality.

But the SDSU Mission Valley site is approaching a major milestone this month for the $310 million stadium being built in the northwest corner of the 135-acre property.

Approximately 3,000 cu

bic yards of concrete — an amount which will require 300 truck loads — is tentatively scheduled to be poured within the next 10 days.

“Getting concrete on the project is always a big deal,” said Derek Grice, SDSU’s executive associate athletic director for Mission Valley development. “If you put it in terms of building a house, you can’t build a house without a foundation.

“Since a house is only as good as its foundation, I think it’s a pretty big milestone. It lays the base for where we’re going.”

Construction crews spent the past three months moving dirt back and forth and stabilizing the ground for the next step.

Grice said 2,017 stone columns, measuring 24 to 36 inches in diameter and 18 to 36 feet in length, were driven from the surface into the ground.

“It’s soil stabilization,” Grice said. “It helps with settlement to make sure we can handle the loads.”

Work on the lower bowl also has begun, backfilled to the concourse level. The field will sit about 30 to 32 feet below the upper concourse level.

That will correct a f law in the original stadium design, that the field was not lower in relation to the seating. The result was fans sitting in the first nine rows of Field Level could not see over the football players standing on the sidelines.

Grice said “by the end of December, you’ll start to see the field walls come into place,” which will frame the field and provide a better idea of exactly where it is in relation to everything.

In January and February, Grice said, “You’ll see the stadium start to take shape” with vertical construction.

Crews will work from north to east to south forming the bowl area.

Looking down from north of the project, a small area of concrete poured west of the field/ bowl area was notable. It was adjacent to a rectangular area of rebar. Those are places where elevators will be going.

Also noticeable now on the eastern part of the property is that work is in progress removing the parking lot asphalt.

That wasn’t originally planned to happen so soon.

Those plans changed when it was determined over the summer that no more events would be hosted at SDCCU Stadium.

“Anytime we get a chance to move faster, it only helps our end goal of the opening day,” Grice said.

The main entrance is now closed to the public, so anyone seeking to access the trolley will need to find another station.

The Holiday Bowl office located inside the stadium was packed up and closed 3-4 weeks ago. Most of the staff will continue working remotely, as it has throughout the pandemic, until a new office in the Murphy Canyon area opens April 1.

Abatement continues in and around the SDCCU Stadium before it is taken down over the next six months.

Some bulldozing, notably of eastern ramps beneath the scoreboard, has begun inside.

“There’s a lot of universal waste inside the building and a lot of things that have to be removed before we can begin to do a dismantling,” Grice said.

As has been stated previously — although social media conversation Wednesday made it apparent not everyone has gotten the word — the stadium will not be imploded but taken down in pieces.

“With the California air quality regulations and the specific areas and environments and neighbors in the community around us,” Grice said, “we just thought it was better for us to do the traditional dismantle.”

An elevated view looking south into the stadium revealed sections of upper level seats that have been removed. Some of them are looking for a good home.

SDSU is selling pairs of seats to those fans interested in getting a piece of memorabilia from the stadium.

Sales to the general public began Tuesday, with seats priced at $329. There is an additional cost ($129.99 to $199.99) to purchase brackets that allow the seats to stand on their own.

In addition, an online auction is planned Dec. 14-16 that includes various items — mostly signage — from the stadium.

More information on seats and auction items is online at goaztecs.com.