This is the extent of Portsmouth's North Stand project which will keep it open next season

And the company behind the improvements believe the stand would not have been open next season if they had not been carried out.

The 16-week undertaking is continuing with the football season suspended amid the coronavirus.

That is seeing cladding replaced and a new roof installed along with crucial work on stand beams, which PMC Construction director, Steve Cripps, believes will help acoustics.

Cripps has no doubt over how important it was to ensure the work was carried out.

He told www.portsmouthfc.co.uk: ‘A year or so ago we identified the cladding in the stand was coming to the end of its life and we’ve been working on solutions ever since.

‘It was decided to take good opportunity of the season being suspended to progress the works.

‘A replacement of cladding rails, roofing rails, 15 tonne of steel work and then the new cantilevered section because when the roof was built they used galvanised steel work but standardised bolts, so we’ve got to replace all the bolts.

‘Rather than scaffold we’re doing that off abseiling points. So in total it’s about 16 weeks’ worth of work.

‘In large part, it would have been highly likely the stand would have been closed had this essential work not been carried out during the close season.

‘The stand used to vibrate massively in the wind where the fixings had torn off, so there should be a better environment and acoustically, definitely the speaker system should be able to be heard clearer.’

Carrying out the North Stand project has seen issues raised which need to be tackled and a few surprises along the way, according to Cripps.

He added: ‘There’s always challenges because you don’t know what you’re going to find.

‘So we’ve unveiled the cladding, we’ve found miles and miles of old wiring and then it’s a case of tracing through the wiring to see what’s operational and what’s not, repairing various elements of that and then you’ve got the amount of corroded steel that you come across, which is hidden behind the cladding systems and then you’re carrying out essential repairs to those those cladding systems.

‘It’s very similar to what we’ve done in the South Stand over the past couple of years.

‘Fratton Park is pretty much clear at the moment with only ground staff, so we can carry all our work out within safe distancing but relatively safely in an orderly way.’