Preparation work starts on Arena site

WORK has started at a city centre site for one of Leeds’s most important economic projects.

It is readiness for construction of the 13,500 capacity Leeds Arena .

People passing the Clay Pit Lane site can now see hoardings going up and sewers and drains being diverted.

The preferred construction contractor for the capacity venue, BAM, have been appointed to undertake the enabling work, which once complete, will allow construction of the venue to begin.

A huge 55m construction project, the arena is expected to add around 25.5m per year to the city’s economy and create around 450 construction jobs, with potentially 90 apprenticeships.

Coun Richard Lewis, Leeds City Council executive member the city development, said: “It’s great news that work has started to prepare the site for the arena – everything remains on schedule for construction of this exciting venue to start early in 2011.

“Once complete, the arena will bring an additional one million visitors to Leeds and an annual economic benefit of over 25m all of which is hugely important for creating employment for local people and attracting investment to the city.

“With work also starting on another major city centre retail development project, Trinity Leeds, which is a 100m construction project, the city’s development and construction industries are being given a major boost.

“This shows the strength of the Leeds property sector and what can be achieved by the combined efforts of the public and private sector.”

The work at Clay Pit Lane is the first activity to take place on the site since the Brunswick building was demolished in 2009.

Since then, the site has been used as a temporary surface car park. This has now permanently closed and Elmwood Road, which currently splits the arena site, is also permanently closed.

The start of work on site follows last month’s publication of the proposals for the external design of the Leeds Arena which revealed it to be a striking honeycomb design with a kaleidoscope of coloured lights which will come alive on an evening and change colour or pattern to reflect the mood of the arena event at the time.