A towering crane lowered a final steel beam into place over Arthur Ashe Stadium on June 10, 2015 as the US Open’s centre court moved closer to being covered by a retractable roof, the Associated Press reported.
The roof will be ready to be used in 2016. Now that the superstructure supporting it is up, workers can begin the process of removing the three cranes from the grounds of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center to get ready for the final Grand Slam event of the year. The US Open begins on August 31.
This is the second straight year an enormous construction project at the tennis centre will be broken down in the months leading up to the tournament, according to the AP report.
The $500 million project, paid for by the US Tennis Association (USTA), will result in a retractable roof with an opening large enough to lower Wimbledon’s center court and its retractable roof though it.
A new 8,000-seat Grandstand is also set to open next year, along with expanded and restructured grounds that will increase the capacity for the US Open by about 10,000 to more than 45,000.
In 2018, a new Louis Armstrong Stadium will open that will seat 14,000. There are no plans to put roofs on the other stadiums.