Edgbaston County Cricket Ground
Project: Edgbaston County Cricket Ground
Category: Stadium & Arena
Products: SFS lightweight steel framing
Scale: £30 million stadium development
Client: Warwickshire County Cricket Club
Contractor: Galliford Try
Installer: ISEC Interior Systems
Metsec lightweight steel framing products have been used on the new stand at Edgbaston County Cricket Ground to create accommodation for catering facilities and provide support for aesthetic fin walls.
Part of the £30 million redevelopment of Warwickshire County Cricket Club, the new stand will provide seating for some 8,250 spectators as well as providing world-class hospitality and media facilities. It also adds an attractive, modern face to the ground, with a stunning blue façade rising above the surrounding area to create an eye-catching feature.
Needing to provide a bar and catering concession on one of the new stand’s curved upper terraces, contractors Galliford Try opted for Metsec’s SFS lightweight steel framing system, confident that it would not impose undue loads on the terrace slab and that it would be able to provide the column-free openings of up to 8 metres that were required in the area, which will be subject to large volumes of spectators during peak periods.
At street level, the main entrance is protected by the overhanging structure of the stand itself, supported by four structural columns housed behind fin-shaped, cladded box sections, the unusual shape adding to the stand’s aesthetic appeal. Again, Metsec SFS was chosen as it not only provided the versatility to create the raked sections, but also the strength required to withstand crowd pressures as spectators enter and exit the ground.
Commenting on the selection and use of Metsec’s products, David Parsons, Design and Construct Co-ordinator at Galliford Try, states, “The steel framing solutions from Metsec came just at the right time; they provided the performance and functionality we needed in the particular areas, but just as importantly, their speed of installation ensured that our construction programme remained on schedule.”
Installation of SFS was undertaken by Stafford-based specialists, ISEC Interior Systems.