A groundbreaking ceremony has taken place to mark the start of work on a £17.3m stadium that is to provide a new home for Rotherham United Football Club (RUFC).

The 12,000-seat stadium - designed by S&P Architects - will be delivered on the site of the South Yorkshire town's former Guest and Chrimes foundry site by GMI Construction. Gleeds is project managing the scheme, which will see the north and south stands to boast a polycarbonate edge to the roof to enable light to reach the pitch.

The east stand is also to comprise a polycarbonate roof system as part of the stadium, which is scheduled to open ahead of the 2012-13 season. Preparatory work has now started in order to raise the site's ground level by 2m as part the project's flood alleviation plans, with steelwork to take shape from autumn.

Simon Morris, associate director and project manager for Gleeds, said: "The first task was to clear the site of vegetation, and within weeks materials will be brought in to begin work on the building. "By the autumn, we expect to see steelwork being erected on site, which is when the stadium will really begin to take shape."

Earlier this month, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council approved a £5m loan towards the development of RUFC's new venue.