As the first 9,000 tonnes of steel arrived at the future site of Edmonton's Rogers Place arena Tuesday, a weight fell from the shoulders of council when they heard about the project's progress.

"On time and on budget is music to my ears at this point," said Mayor Don Iveson, after council voted to accept an arena district update.

The report outlined the status of the work, including the completion of excavation, shoring and piling; elevator pit, slab and column construction; exterior wall concrete pouring; and pouring of concrete slabs on-grade.

Workers are now beginning the steel fabrication and the steel framework is expected to begin on schedule at the end of the month.

The $604.5-million project is also on track to getting certified as only the second Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver NHL arena in North America.

The report wasn't without a few items of public concern.

Click here to check out the live cam set up to broadcast arena construction.

Rick Daviss, the city's executive director of the arena district project, said a number of concerns have been fielded by city staff from nearby residents and store owners.

"We put a lot of issues on the table that the community would like us to make sure are being addressed. Number one was parking, number two was parking and number three was parking. We are addressing that," Daviss said.

A parking consultant has been asked to give some input on dealing with the parking problems being caused by the construction and staff expect a report to be brought to them by January.

As for concerns about the community rink construction keeping pace, he said they are unwarranted.

"It looks like, appearances are it might be behind, but it's not," said Daviss, adding the work just seems to be behind because of the tight construction site.

As for the money side, the building is on budget but a portion of the community rink is still waiting on approval of grants from the provincial and federal governments.

Should that not come through, council heard the cost could be covered by the CRL but Iveson said he is confident that won't be necessary.

City manager Simon Farbrother explained that "the first priority on the CRL is to pay off the CRL component of the debt that is on the arena."

"The good news is that the numbers are likely to be higher than first anticipated," Farbrother said, adding the city's finance department is trying to keep the interest on debt to a minimum so it doesn't eat into the savings in the end.

david.lazzarino@sunmedia.ca

@SUNDaveLazz