Springfield, Mass. — State gaming regulators touring the MGM Springfield casino site Thursday morning stopped to watch a crane swing a beam into place atop the six-story parking garage that’s part of the $950 million project.

It was almost as if on cue.

High-reaching cranes, some 1,700 pieces of steel and more than 11,000 cubic yards of poured concrete were among the tangible signs of the project’s status. Together, they seemed to strongly suggest: This baby’s going to come in on time, if not a bit ahead of schedule.

That, said Mike Mathis, the MGM Springfield president who led the tour, might depend on the weather, which couldn’t have been better Thursday.

“Here we are, Dec. 1, and it’s what, 51 degrees?” Mathis said. “If we have a second good winter, I feel really good about construction. This is a fast-moving project.”

That wouldn’t be music to the ears of casino-expansion advocates in Connecticut, where the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes hope to develop a small- to medium-size casino north of Hartford to protect Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, respectively, from MGM Springfield’s competitive impact.

Mathis said he was “comfortable” with an approved schedule that calls for a September 2018 opening. He wouldn’t say whether the pace of the work so far has exceeded expectations. Groundbreaking took place in March 2015.

Eric Nelson, a Tishman Construction vice president, told tour participants that the first piece of structural steel went up Oct. 3.

“So, what you’re looking at is eight to nine weeks of progress,” he said.

After years studying renderings of the project, Stephen Crosby, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission chairman, said it was “extraordinary” to view the progress at the site. He said his panel continues to oversee that progress, as it does that of the Bay State’s other casino site in Everett, where the $2.1 billion Wynn Boston Harbor is expected to open in 2019.

Asked about the status of a potential third resort casino in Massachusetts, Crosby said the commission is waiting to see if the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe can clear legal hurdles that stalled its project in Taunton.

Thursday’s tour preceded a meeting of the commission at the MassMutual Center, a couple of blocks from the MGM Springfield site. MGM officials delivered a quarterly update on their casino project, with Seth Stratton, vice president and general counsel, reporting that MGM has incurred nearly $300 million in project costs, meaning nearly $700 million has yet to be spent.

During the session, the City of Springfield’s chief development officer, Kevin Kennedy, credited the casino project with boosting downtown revitalization efforts and providing 2,000 construction jobs as well as the promise of 3,000 permanent ones once the project is completed.

Kennedy said the city has attracted $3.3 billion in investments since the 2011 tornado that ripped through the South End, which is where MGM is building.

Springfield businessman Paul Picknelly credited MGM executives with helping him land the Springfield Thunderbirds professional hockey team, which replaced a team that left the city.

Signs of the tornado still are evident in the city, including one that Mathis pointed out during the tour.

MGM Springfield, designed to incorporate existing structures, including some historical facades, surrounds the former State Armory building on Howard Street, a fort-like structure replete with towers and decorative brick. The tornado ravaged the building, toppling one of its two chimney structures.

“We’ve been debating whether to rebuild it,” Mathis said of the chimney. “It’s about authenticity.”

b.hallenbeck@theday.com