Raising the roof: vision of Te Kaha stadium grows closer
Monday, 24 June 2024
Enormous steel structures that jut out over the seating and will eventually support the roof at Christchurch’s new Te Kaha stadium are now being put in place.
Construction of the $683 million, 30,000-seat stadium is past the halfway mark, and the vision of its designers is fast becoming a reality as its shape becomes ever clearer.
More than 1000 of the stadium’s 1663 seating plats - the concrete structures which create the tier shape and to which the seats are attached - are in place.
All those in the west stand are installed, and the lower bowl in the east stand is starting to form, which will take the seating all the way down to the pitch.
The roof of the west stand, home to the coaches’ boxes and media areas, is up and is ready for cladding.
Te Kaha will be a covered stadium, and the next phase of the construction project is fabricating and installing the roof.
The roof and supporting structure is made up of several components, including steel radial trusses - each 37m high and weighing between 45 and 75 tonnes - cantilever modules and roof trusses.
The first of 40 radial trusses was installed in December and 16 are now in place as part of the stadium’s perimeter.
Cantilever modules - huge, 60 tonne steel structures that extend out over the seating area to support the roof - are now being built on site and welded into place.
The first two already tower above the south stand, and Adrian Jones, project director for contractors BESIX Watpac, said over the coming month more will appear over the east and west stands. They should all be in place by early next year.
The next big step will be to install the first of the roof trusses, which stretch across the arena, and is on track to begin in the next quarter.
But engineers are not just focused on the enormous parts of the stadium’s superstructure - Jones said a number of hydrobaths are about to be put into the players’ facilities.
The stadium is expected to be completed in April 2026.