Multidisciplinary services for Liberty Stadium

URS provided a range of services for this £28m development, including civil and structural engineering design, environmental engineering and geotechnical services.

The City and County of Swansea wished to procure a new all-seater stadium for use by both Swansea City Football Club and the then Swansea Rugby Club. URS was originally part of a Miller Developments consortium chosen through an open design competition in 2000. The final design, by renowned stadium architects TTH Partnership, is a 20,000 seat ‘bowl’ stadium with covered terraces having unobstructed views through the use of a tied-cantilever roof structure.

The location for the stadium was the site of the White Rock zinc and copper smelting works. in Swansea, UK. Site contamination principally consisted of metallurgical slag with the potential to leach heavy metals into the nearby River Tawe. The slag heaps were levelled in the 1970’s, since when the site had been used as playing fields. Key to the successful redevelopment of the site was the solution adopted by URS to deal with the on-site contaminated materials.

The presence of up to 10m of loose made ground required the use of driven concrete piling founded in the underlying gravels. It was also necessary to suspend the concourse slab to mitigate against possible vertical settlements. URS applied a solution from the industrial sector by the use of a ‘floating’ steel fibre reinforced slab.

The superstructure comprises a steel frame with precast concrete flooring and terracing. URS utilised the latest software techniques to optimise steelwork weight and design to strict sway performance criteria to allow the stadium to also be used for music events.

URS developed a remediation strategy that allowed all existing contaminated materials to remain on-site, thus saving considerable disposal costs. URS’ considerable stadia experience resulted in an efficient structural solution for the stadium.