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Read about the monitoring surveys we undertake at the home of England football, Wembley Stadium, London.
Article By: Tom Ayre | Last Update: November 2020
Hollandia UK
On Going Work
Wembley Stadium, London, UK
Tom Ayre / Scott Watts
THS Concepts were appointed by Hollandia UK, who are a renown Dutch engineering company. They have delivered a number of impressive jobs across the world involving bridges, buildings and civil engineering projects. In the past we have undertaken a number of jobs for them, including the Boston flood barrier.
Wembley Stadium is an iconic, internationally known football stadium that also hosts rugby, American football and concerts. The structure is home of the England national football team and seats approximately 90,000 people. Along with football, the stadium is also used for other sporting events as well as music concerts.
The stadium’s roof is supported in places by the 133-metre-high arch that goes across the stadium. The stadium also has 2 retractable roofs at each end of the pitch, which allows sunlight and air flows to help the grass grow.
The purpose of the monitoring survey work is to monitor the structural steelwork for movement over time. The results of the survey are used to check the structure over time as part of the maintenance of the stadium. The retractable roofs at each end weigh in the region of 100’s of tonnes, which can have a minor effect on the movement in the steelwork. It is these fractional movements that THS Concepts are tasked with reporting on!
THS Concepts use a total station and setup in various places around the stadium to monitor the different locations. One of the locations we setup in is the main tv stand overlooking the centre of the pitch! Within the stadium, we have a fixed control network that we use to reference back to. These are located lower down on concrete elements to minimise the chances that they move.
The project is currently on going into the future, we return approximately every 6 months to undertake the survey work.
To survey the monitoring points, we use a Leica 1 second total station. In the roof of the stadium there are a mixture of prisms and reflective targets to pick up on. If you are ever in the stadium, see if you can spot any!
The monitoring survey process is a fairly easy process to undertake. One minor issue is we sometimes encounter prisms that don’t reflect. This means we sometimes cannot get readings. The result of this is that one of the Hollandia team will have to use roped access to replace the prism!
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THS Concepts has a passionate team of surveyors and CAD draughtsman delivering detailed, thorough and accurate surveys and CAD drawings. We are far more than just a land and building surveying company.