NMB Stadium | Construction

Construction Technology

Details

NMB Stadium is situated in North End Port Elizabeth on the shores of the
North End Lake. This location was chosen because of the affordability of upgrading the infrastructure in and around the site. Grinaker-LTA/ Interbeton Ibhayi Joint Venture, has been commissioned to construct the stadium at a cost of just over one billion rand. Construction got under way in March 2007 when the tender was awarded. The architects on the stadium are Architectural Design Associates (Port Elizabeth) (PTY) Ltd. And Dominic Bonnesse Architects cc. The Joint Venture includes Grinaker-LTA Civil Engineering, Grinaker-LTA Building (Cape) and Interbeton, with HBM Stadien-und-Sportstattenbau, a German construction company that specialises in sports stadia, as advisors.

Beam Construction

Alu-Dalle and Tim-Deck systems are being used to construct the flat slabs. Construction teams are working on 12 faces simultaneously with an initial turn around time per face of 500m² bi-weekly. Due to a demand to shorten the program by 4 months, this rate has been increased to a 1000m² per 3-week period on each face.

Collaboration of expertise

In all, some 39 consultants headed by the BKS/BTKM-PMSA Joint Venture are combining their expertise to create a world-class stadium, which will not only be used for soccer but many other sporting and entertainment events.

Design Aspects

The roof

The most visible feature of the stadium is the roof, which appears to be levitating over the base of the stadium. It will have a structural steel frame covered with two layers of cladding, one being PTFE-coated glass fibre fabric, and the other being aluminium. It has been designed to provide maximum protection to the spectators, on the upper concourse and upper tier, in particular, from the wind, which is a major challenge in Port Elizabeth, and the rain. At the peak of the contract the JV will employ in excess of a hundred supervisory staff and a labour force in excess of a thousand, most of whom will come from the local community and will be trained in construction methods.