Process Begins To Get Heinz Field Ready For Playoffs

NORTH SHORE (KDKA) -- The Winter Classic is over and now it's time for Heinz Field to transform back into a football stadium.

Taking down the exterior trappings is the easy part. The banners of Saturday will soon be replaced by playoff fever for the Steelers. Removing the rink will be a bit more challenging.

The yards of white material that created a snow-covered look for the classic have been piled up, loaded on forklifts and await a dumpster ride to a landfill.

The hard surfaces where a tractor trailer sat Monday and which underlies the Winter Classic set up has to be removed panel by panel.

In short, the football field is trashed as it was expected to be and what took more than a week to construct must disappear in just a few days so Heinz Field turf can be dug up and a brand new surface rolled out in its place.

Back in November when the turf was replaced after the WPIAL finals, the grass had about 12 days to take root and it seemed to perform well when the Bengals came to town.

The new turf will be down in plenty of time to give the Steelers solid footing Jan. 15.