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As Purdue home football schedule ends, Ross-Ade project set to kick off

On3 imageby:Tom Dienhart•11/18/22•

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The end of Purdue’s home football schedule will signal the beginning of the much-anticipated phase one of the Ross-Ade Stadium renovation.

Starting next week, workers are expected to begin working on the $45.4 million project, erecting construction fences and staging equipment. Then, the real work will begin.

“We expect that the first week of December, we’ll actually see construction activity,” Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski told GoldandBlack.com. “So, probably a week to 10 days of staging and then they’ll get into it at the very beginning of December, is what we expect.”

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The project has three main components:

• Building a tunnel from the locker room in the Kozuch Football Performance Complex to the stadium

• Converting and expanding a Purdue Team Store located in the northeast corner of the Ross-Ade parking lot into a dining/nutrition center

• Overhauling the south end zone

The project is expected to be completed in time for the start of the 2023 season. The first game is Sept. 2 vs. Fresno State.

“These guys are used to working in weather up here,” said Bobinski. “Unless there’s some catastrophic weather conditions, they should be able to work their way through it. Like every construction project, you’re always nervous until it’s done.

“There’s a timeline and everybody says, ‘Yes, we can hit that timeline.’ But I’ve never seen one yet that gets done with breathing room. Usually, you’re buttoning it up five minutes before you actually get to use it. I hope that’s not the case. But I know it’s an aggressive timeline, but one that they think they can meet.”

The biggest challenge of the project? Building the tunnel.

“Everyone has said there should be no underground issues,” said Bobinski. “So, that should be fairly straightforward. But you have some demo in the stadium and you never know when you’re dealing with (an old structure) when you start chipping it apart a little bit. So, there’ll be some nervous moments.”

Ross-Ade Stadium is approaching its 100th birthday, having opened in 1924. Bobinski anticipates no issues with the south end zone and nutrition center.

“I think the nutrition center is probably the easiest, because it sort of sits out there all by itself and doesn’t have to connect to a lot of other things and all that,” said Bobinski. “So, that’s probably the least complex piece of this whole thing.

“The south end zone, again, that won’t be overly complicated because you’re really starting from zero, you’re actually building a brand new structure there. Not a lot of demo involved with that.”

Bobinski already has his mind on phase two of the Ross-Ade project.

“We are thinking about it,” he said. “We’re definitely thinking about it. We are evaluating options as to what the right elements might be in phase two. I wouldn’t tell you that we’ve completely nailed that down yet, but we’ve got a number of different things that we’re considering.

“Everything is a function of dollars and time. How much do we think we can raise? How long would it take to do the phase? Is there disruption if you bite off a really big chunk? Do you have to play part of a season with some of the stadium not available? All of that is going into our thinking as we evaluate.”

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