Everton Stadium is being ‘brought to life’ by the installation of modules that will carry the vital services to all areas.
Bespoke MEP (mechanical, electrical and public health) units, each weighing around 3.5 tonnes, are currently being installed into the roof spaces of the ground floor in the west stand. The giant steel modules will support a myriad of inter-connected cabling trays that will run through the roof spaces of all stands and on every level – enabling the distribution of power, heating, ventilation and water to all areas of Everton's new 52,888 capacity stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, scheduled to open in the 2024/25 season.
Alan Swift, MEP Project Leader for construction partner Laing O’Rourke explained: “This is essentially what brings the building to life. We have a superb building, but without the services nothing really happens.
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“The modules house the mechanical heating and ventilation systems, chilled water, electrical distribution and the public health systems in terms of drainage and hot and cold-water pipework. They are manufactured primarily for the distribution of all those services around the whole stadium, on all levels, so they will contain all the data cabling, low voltage cabling and the pipework. They are the primary services, supplying everything from phone charging to the floodlighting of the whole building.”
The MEP units follow the well-worn, proven path of Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA), pioneered by Laing O’Rourke. Manufactured by Laing O’Rourke subsidiary Crown House Technologies, at its factory in the West Midlands, they are delivered to site in a pre-determined order and installed to a detailed methodology that saves time and increases quality.
Swift said: “A lot of effort goes into how we design the containment and support systems. The design takes several months, through a company called Buro Happold, who are leading the MEP design work for Laing O’Rourke across the whole project.
“We pick that design up, apply our own expertise to define how to plan and modular build, and then oversee manufacturing to the exact specifications required at our factory in Oldbury. It’s something we have been doing now for a number of years and it takes out a lot of the day-to-day labour intensive work on site.
“They can be built in the Laing O’Rourke factory, as these are, and brought on-site to bolt them together in position. It’s a quicker and safer way to do it – with a better quality outcome.”
Swift added: “We then use structural design engineers, who do the full analysis, because each one weighs around four tonnes.
“You can then imagine there are several tonnes of services, including pipes and water, sitting within the cable trays.
“That’s a lot of weight that needs supporting, and there are walkways down the middle of many of them, so that the stadium have access later on, for maintenance.”
The Laing O’Rourke team plans to start installing the cabling in the summer, with the aim of having power across the stadium site early next year.
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