Construction begins on Cabela's expansion

Construction in underway at the site of the Cabela's corporate campus expansion, west of the company's current location on Old Post Road.

The work is part of phase one of the redevelopment planned for the 27-acre location. It includes land grading, construction of roads for various access points, storm water management processes and construction of the new 160,000-square-foot office building.

Construction workers began concrete work by pouring a counterfort retaining wall at the building site on Friday. Earth Engineering Consultants will test the density of the concrete for the wall after seven days, 28 days and 30 days to insure it has the proper strength. Croell Redi Mix supplied the concrete work on this project.

Although the quality and strength of the concrete will be tested by multiple people, Sidney's Chief Building Official Brad Rowan will give final approval. The makeup of the concrete is determined by a computer.

The project is going well so far, said James Shepherd, project engineer for the general contractor, GE Johnson. One of the largest obstacles for workers so far was receiving approval to move Air Force cabling that ran through the property. It only took about a week to physically move the cable, but the approval process took much longer, Shepherd said.

At the moment, Shepherd expects the construction will be done by next summer.

"It's going to go quick," he said.

The total estimated cost of all possible future phases of the plan is $34 million, according to Cabela's.

"In a couple of weeks it'll start to look like a building," Shepherd said.

The company will construct additional buildings in the future only if it sees a need for them.