Piles of steel, concrete in stadium
Colin Barnett declared Perth's new stadium should have a "tuck shop" food outlet named in honour of Sports Minister Terry "Tuck" Waldron as the pair formally kicked off the construction phase yesterday.
In Mr Waldron's final public event as minister before retiring from Cabinet today, the first of 2000 piles to hold up the five-storey, 42m-high structure was symbolically driven into the ground.
The State Government expects more than 5700 construction workers to be involved in the $1.2 billion project, which includes $300 million for transport infrastructure and more than 100 contracts to be let to local suppliers.
The Premier backed a call by WA Football Commission chief executive Gary Walton for the first event at the stadium in 2018 to be a western derby and said informal talks had been held with the AFL on the topic.
Mr Barnett paid tribute to Mr Waldron's stewardship of the project over his six years in the portfolio.
In July, the Westadium consortium led by Brookfield Multiplex won the contract to design, build, partially finance and maintain the stadium precinct. Mr Waldron said 10,000 tonnes of steel and 52,000cum of concrete would go into it.
"Early next year you will see the first of eight new cranes go up and at the end of 2015 the first roof trusses will be visible," he said.
