With hundreds of tonnes of steel arriving at the Cuckoo Farm site this week, activity is due to step up a level on the construction of the town's new community stadium.

Last week saw the cranes that will erect that steel turn up at the north Colchester site, with the steel that will form the structure of the stands following on Monday.

And, with the next stage of building ready to get underway, it means a significant expansion in the number of workers located at Cuckoo Farm.

One man who has been there throughout the process so far is General Foreman, Alan Jaszewski.

Alan, who has been with Barr for some 37 years, will play a big part in the construction of the 10,000 seater community facility and is looking forward to the arrival of the new faces.

A good number of the workers will come down from Scotland - where Barr's headquarters are based - and many will have worked together before.

That camaraderie will be important as the Barr team look to meet their deadline of finishing the stadium ahead of the 2008/9 season.

"You do quite often work with familiar faces, so there is a lot of good spirit between the lads," he told CU-FC.com.

"The way that our rotas work means that there is always a group working on the site and at present we are doing 7.30am to 7pm, and at the weekends slightly shorter days.

"As soon as it gets dark, we tend to call it a day and as the nights draw in, it will obviously provide its own challenges."

Whilst the weather is favourable now, the cold of winter and the dark nights may make Scotland feel like a long way away for some of the builders on site.

So how do the workers deal with working away from home?

"In general, it's not that bad," Alan continued.

"Obviously there are times where you would like to be nearer to your families.

"For the past couple of years I have been working on a project which has meant I have been able to travel home each night, so this is the first time in a little while that I have been away.

"We do ten days on then have a long weekend off, and most of the boys make the most of the opportunity to fly back and see their families when they get the time."

Should time not permit a trip north of the border, the Barr workforce have been making the most of the hospitality afforded to them by the people of Colchester.

Fans living in that neck of the woods may well have bumped into some of the builders and can expect to see plenty of them now that Alan and his colleagues have found themselves a local pub.

He explained: "We have only been here a couple of months, but we have already found ourselves a pub to drink in and watch the football, because most of the guys working on the site do like the sport. I think a trip to Layer Road is planned!

"A few of the boys have already made friends with the regulars in the pub and we will be going out this week for a couple of birthday dos.

"It seems to be a very nice town, so when time allows, I think the guys will start to venture into the town a bit more and use the pubs and restaurants there too.

"Some of the guys are living on site at the moment, and we have also rented a couple of houses on the Northern Approach Road. The project manager also has a house down near Asda, the company rent these out for the year."

From a social point of view, then, things appear to be going well for the men responsible for the U's new stadium.

And, Alan admitted, progress is good on site as well.

"We are having to work hard at the moment due to the tight deadlines, but we are well on track at the moment and meeting our targets as we go along," he said.