Design and construction of stadium tiers – a case study of R. Premadasa Stadium, Sri Lanka

Abstract

The R.Premadasa International Stadium which is one of the largest stadiums in the country and the only ground in Colombo with flood lights was one of the venues for the tenth ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. The ground which had 15,000 seating capacity was refurbished and reconstructed to increase the seating capacity to 35,000. Under this massive construction project almost buildings around the ground was added with structures to increase the seating capacity and also the existing roof was replaced with a new steel roof. Even the project was very large the time duration given for the design and the completion of construction was only one year. Since the main aim was to increase the seating capacity priority was given to design and construction of stadium tiers and the supporting arrangement. There were many shortcomings with the existed stadium tiers as they were the pre-stressed double “T” sections. Speed of construction and cost effectiveness could not be achieved with them. Precise formwork system and limited area of casting beds were the main problems encountered with casting. Also there was a major problem of water leaking through the brickwork at the edge of the tier connection. In order to overcome the above problems, a new system was identified, analyzed, designed and constructed. Compared with in-situ tiers the new pre-cast system had great advantages in both time and cost. The shape was modified and the weight per unit was limited to overcome the above problems and for the ease of handling. The paper will discuss the types of stadium tiers, design and construction aspects and both advantages and disadvantages. With all these efforts the hosting of World Cup Cricket Matches in R. Premadasa Stadium became a reality.