The earth has been scraped, structural steel is on the way, and the sacred “kissing columns” have been surgically and safely removed and stored in a secret on-campus location.

While the red construction fence makes it difficult for passers-by to get a peek at the early stages of Nebraska’s new massive $135 million athletics training and locker room facility, the work is on schedule at this stage for a summer 2023 opening.

Financially speaking, the work is also on budget so far, said John Ingram, the associate athletic director for capital planning and construction.

Those are no small accomplishments, given the delayed start to the project, and ongoing concerns about the pandemic, labor shortages, supply chain bottlenecks, rising costs of raw materials, and of course, Nebraska winters that are on the way.

The three-level, 315,000 square-foot facility, which will tie into the north and east sides of Memorial Stadium is one of the biggest construction projects undertaken in recent years in the entire state.

When completed, the athletics facility will be the equivalent square footage of six football fields.

“It’s a big project, a complicated project,” said Ingram.

Ingram and his team have been meeting at least weekly since late April’s groundbreaking with architects, designers, engineers, subcontractors, and others.

About 35 to 40 workers are on the site now, and the size of the workforce should peak at around 200 to 250, said Chad Wiles, executive president and chief operating officer at Lincoln-based Hausmann Construction, the construction manager on the project.

As construction ramps up, Wiles said, the activity at the site “will look like an anthill,” with the involvement of 45 subcontractors and suppliers who have contracts for their part of the project from $10,000 to $10-to-$15 million.

The athletic department this spring released updated renderings on what the facility would look like once completed. Located where the Ed Weir Track -- and the kissing columns -- used to be, the new building will house Nebraska’s locker room, meeting rooms, coaches offices, a strength and conditioning area, and athletic medicine facilities.

A proposed $20 million second phase would house the training table and new academic center once the money is raised. Ingram said fundraising is going well, but declined to elaborate.

Will there be some cool touches and special features added to the project, such as waterfalls, bowling alleys and other “wow” factors that some schools have built into new training facilities?

Absolutely, said Ingram, although the athletic department doesn’t want to tip its hand. “We want to make the new features known when they’ll have the greatest recruiting impact,” Ingram said.

Sewers and storm sewers have been relocated, pumps have been added to water-proof the site, the foundation has taken shape five feet below the original footprint, two levels of stairways have been built on the south side, and about 500 support piles to anchor the building have been dug 95 feet deep.

All in all, about 15 percent of the work has been completed, Wiles said.

The next phase calls for about 400 tons of steel to be delivered by mid-November, and to be erected mostly over the winter, Wiles said. It will take about five months to set the steel in place.

Topping out the structural phase of the project is scheduled for mid-summer, followed by adding the roof and buttoning up the building. In addition, concrete will be poured for the second and third floor; then the project moves into the drywall phase before the finishing touches are completed.

“Work is being funneled east to west, then turning the corner to the north and south,” Wiles said.

One fixture at the work site for the next 20 months or so: Hausmann’s 260-foot tall tower crane, which is currently being assembled. Smaller cranes, which hover over the north side of Memorial Stadium, are also in use.

With the exception of football Saturdays, the construction crew is working six days a week to stay ahead of winter, said Wiles.

While there are no guarantees of a mild winter boosting the construction timeline, there is one big guarantee built into the cost of the project.

As construction manager, Hausmann has promised in its contract to hold prices to a so-called guaranteed maximum amount. That’s an industry best-practice standard, which means the university will not be on the hook for any budget-busting overruns over the guaranteed cost of the building. Hausmann assumed that risk.

Despite the one-year delay in launching the project and all the other challenges caused by the pandemic and inflation, Wiles said Hausmann has been “very fortunate” in being able to “hold prices and maintain the budget.”

Ingram agreed that “things are holding steady so far.”

The biggest challenge involved lining up all the steel, especially from regional and local suppliers. But Wiles said “we’re well into that process” and there haven’t been any hiccups.

Wiles said the athletics project is obviously an important and highly visible contract for Hausmann. Nearly 90,000 people see Hausmann signage every football Saturday, and thousands more walk past the campus construction site between classes.

The project is important on a personal level to Wiles. He grew up in Wood River, Neb., and played high school football as a freshman with a certain senior quarterback by the last name of Frost. Wiles played football one year at Nebraska and baseball four years before graduating in 2000 and playing three years professionally in the Seattle Mariners organization.

“Being part of that (Nebraska heritage) brings all kinds of good feelings” about being involved in the athletics project, he said.

Construction of the new track and field complex north of the Devaney Center reached a huge milestone earlier this month with the laying of the outdoor track surface followed by the striping.

Ingram said the infield area should be graded, with irrigation and sod installed, and completed by Dec. 1. Since the track surface was installed first in an effort to beat the cold weather, a bridge will be placed over the new track surface to access and construct the new infield, Ingram said.

There’s still quite a bit of work ahead in phase two of the $16.5 million project, including building the seating areas. The finished product will feature amenities that will enable Nebraska to host championship events, including visiting team dressing rooms, meeting rooms and extra practice space.

The updated track locker facilities at the Devaney Center will be used by Nebraska athletes for both indoor and outdoor track seasons.

Ingram likened the facility as being a “one-stop-shop” for track and field. No longer will track and field athletes need to use the trunk of their car as a makeshift locker, or waste precious time getting to and from practice.

The complex won’t be completed in time to host meets during next spring’s outdoor track and field season, forcing the team on the road. But the 160-plus athletes -- about 25 percent of all Nebraska’s student-athletes -- will at least be able to practice and use the locker room and training facilities at the Devaney Center.

Steve Rosen writes about the business of sports for HuskerOnline. Reach Steve with questions, comments, and story ideas at srosen@huskeronline.com.