Top gunners

As Thierry Henry and his Arsenal teammates took to the pitch against Aston Villa on 19 August they will have had plenty to celebrate. They may not have topped the English Championship League in the 2005/06 season, but they are starting the new season at the peak of the game when it comes to facilities.

A full-capacity crowd of 60 000 roared the teams into action at Arsenal’s new home ground in North London. Emirates Stadium, named after its main commercial sponsor Emirates Airline, has been seven years in the making and the forward planning and teamwork involved have produced a venue that is being hailed as one of the best in the world.

Built around half a mile from the club’s former home at Highbury, the stadium blends subtly into the surrounding residential streets. Fans will only catch their first glimpse of their stunning new home as they approach by the footbridges built over the railway lines that define the site on two sides. And they can’t fail to be impressed.

A wave of glazing under the roof draws the eyes along the building through a view that is set to make even the most ardent visiting supporter wish for the same for their own team. But the best is yet to come.

The low-level structure belies the true size of the venue and once inside fans are greeted by a jaw-dropping view. With over 20 000 more seats than Highbury, the four tiers of seating wrap fully around the pitch. The delicately formed roof frame bows inwards towards a lush green pitch, creating a giant basin and concentrating attention towards the action.

Making the pitch

It is not just the structure that is impressive here; the services that ensure the smooth running of the stadium have required detailed planning, thoughtful use of products and flexible programming.

Goodmarriott & Hursthouse won the contract for the main electrical infrastructure installation by competitive tender to main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine. The work included all hv and lv cabling; distribution of power around the stadium; lighting, including the pitch floodlighting; and containment for the arterial services routes.

This was the first time the two firms have worked together and Goodmarriott & Hursthouse project manager Colin Brunton attributes an open approach to the success of the tender bid and the project as a whole. “We set out our stall and provided Sir Robert McAlpine with very detailed information at tender stage, which was enough for them to take notice of us,” explains Brunton.

Funding issues meant that the project was put on hold for several months, but the two firms maintained dialogue and Goodmarriott & Hursthouse provided similarly detailed information at the retender stage. “Because there was a delay on the contract it gave the contractor the opportunity to vet us very closely,” says Brunton, “and we were very open in what we allowed them to see. Basically we allowed them to look as deep as they wanted into our business – it was an opportunity to demonstrate to them just how solid the business is.”

The tender for the electrical services package was to a concept design by m&e services consultant Buro Happold. The design of only two of the stands was fully complete at this stage, so the firm priced these to their full design, with work for the remaining two stands tendered on a pro rata formula while the design was being developed. “Because the job is very repetitive in all areas this was a fairly solid formula that allowed us to proceed with a good degree of certainty,” states Brunton.

Electrical action

Goodmarriott & Hursthouse’s contract officially began on September 2004. The firm, however, had a presence on site from the previous June to ensure conduits could be cast into the concrete structure. “We started very early in terms of the structure and our works have progressed with the build,” explains Brunton.

The services distribution is based around eight cores – two per stand. Each core contains a main riser that feeds services upwards from the basement plantroom. Two hv ringmains run at height around the ground level area, feeding four main hv/lv substations with double-end package substations. “These have effectively doubled in size from when we started,” says Brunton. “Initially there was to be was only four substations and one ringmain.”

One of the main reasons for this increase in services was a change in the catering supply philosophy on site. Originally the catering outlets were to be gas, but a change of supplier saw the demand change to electricity. “Overnight the demand doubled from 7 MVA to 14 MVA in terms of electrical supply,” stresses Brunton. “The impact that this had on the project was that everything increased in size, not just in terms of capacity, but in terms of scale.”

With the mechanical services and ductwork, installed by MJN Colston and E & S Ductwork respectively, also affected by the change, co-ordination within the risers became a big issue. “The spatial co-ordination became such a huge issue because everything got bigger, but we had the same building to fit it in,” stresses Brunton, adding: “The level of change was also been a massive issue because we’ve had to deal with it within a diminishing period of time.”

The Emirates Stadium has been seven years in the making and is being hailed as one of the best in the world

Brunton cites very close working with the client, Sir Robert McAlpine, and the other subcontractors as key to overcoming any issues. “The one thing with Sir Robert McAlpine is that we’ve had very good communication. It’s been very much a team effort throughout,” comments Brunton.

Another major factor in overcoming the design changes was the presence of an on-site design team for Goodmarriott & Hursthouse. “They’ve been here from day one to liaise with all the other teams’ packages,” Brunton explains. This move has proved its worth as by the end of the project the contractor’s variation account had exceeded the original project order.

Aiming for goal

Goodmarriott & Hursthouse’s first venture into the field of sports stadia, this project was set to be prestigious and in the public eye from the start. The firm looked closely at ways of capitalising on the repetitive nature of the design.

“It leant itself to completing on a level-by-level basis, and the idea was that we had a supervisor per level,” explains Brunton. However the construction was to be on a stand-by-stand basis, starting with the West, followed in turn by the North, East and South stands. A further complication was that although construction work began on the West stand, the North stand had to be completed first. “It almost became a fait accomplit – we had to structure our installation so that we had teams working on a stand-by-stand basis purely by the way the construction was being driven,” explains Brunton.

Their approach was then two-fold. The first action was to keep teams of operatives together and working on the same tasks throughout the job. In this way the knowledge they gained in completing one area reduced the time needed to do the same task elsewhere.

The second tack was to maintain a level of fluidity within the installation programme, moving into some areas up to two months ahead of time as the construction work allowed. Brunton explains: “Whilst the programme has always been extremely important, as soon as an area has been available to work in productively and efficiently, we’ve not waited, we’ve gone in there with the contractor’s blessing and carried out work on the basis that it’s all productive.

“Specifically with the level of change that we’ve had, if we had allowed ourselves to be driven by the programme we would have had some significant problems.” A hefty penalty clause for each week overrun on the final deadline brought an added incentive.

In order to manage their workforce in this more fluid way, the areas available for working in were reviewed at weekly planning meetings and plans made for work over the following month. “We’d look at the resource levels and any potential benefit of moving labour around,” explains Brunton.

Team work

The firm was influential in terms of the on-site co-ordination. In addition to its internal meetings it chaired weekly m&e co-ordination meetings, discussing with the other contractors what work they were doing where and their forward plans. “We drove this because invariably we were the last services trade to go into areas that were above ceilings, hence were the people that were under pressure from a programme point of view.

“It was in our interest to know what other firms were doing and how they were progressing. The finishing trades were coming behind us, come what may, so we had to make sure we managed that risk,” he adds.

To further reduce on-site installation time, several products were selected due to their time-saving features. Within the executive boxes and offices, multi-click plug-in roses were used for the lighting rather than individual roses for each fitting, which saved significant time.

Others, like the distribution boards, involved prefabrication; in this case the trunking assembly was attached off site. “That had the benefit of the work having been completed at much more cost-effective rates, it looks better and saved us time on site,” says Brunton. “It’s something that I try and do on all of our projects; factory conditions are much better than site ones, they are much more geared up to it,” he adds.

The final whistle has now blown on the construction phase but the tactics taken by the team throughout the project from the tender kick-off stage have meant Arsenal could move into their new home even earlier than expected. Dennis Bergkamp had the honour of his testimonial match on 22 July being the first full game in the ground. With the celebrations begun, surely the only way Arsenal can top this achievement is to win the double this year.