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Crowds flocking to the home ground of the Newcastle Knights this year will have access to new and improved accommodation as a result of an innovative engineering project undertaken by John Holland, in conjunction with, Coates Hire Industrial Services and Enerpac Hydraulics.

Focal to the $81 million Western Grandstand at Ausgrid Stadium (formerly Energy Australia Stadium), is the new 1500 tonne roof, that had to be delicately and safely moved into position. The room features a cable-stayed cantilever steel roof approximately 150 metres long and 25 metres deep.

To conduct such an effort, the Enerpac system supplied by Coates Hire Industrial Service was employed.

Twelve temporary roof props had been placed in position while the roof structure was assembled and until the cable supports could take up the load. Coates Hire provided 12 x 100 tonne hydraulic cylinders and 24 x 25 tonne hydraulic cylinders. Ancillary equipment such as pumps, hoses, gauges etc were also supplied by the industrial team.

So delicate was the operation, lowering the roof had to be done often at 10-20mm increments at each of the 12 props.

“The stadium’s method of construction was chosen because of the nature of cable-stayed roofing,” said Consulting Structural Engineer Peter Burns, who worked with John Holland.

"This type of roof design is great for holding a roof up in the air, but relies on weight on the leading edge to protect against wind uplift. With this additional weight, each temporary prop was required to support about 60-70 tonnes.
 
“To ensure precise positioning and protect the roof against unwanted flexing as the temporary props were removed, we needed to use a better, more finely-controllable lowering system than traditional arrangements using wedges or sand jacks,” Mr Burns said.
 
The entire operation was a seamless efficient success taking just a day to complete with the roof moving down smoothly and evenly in a controlled manner.

Karl Antoine, Thornton Branch Manager at Coates Hire Industrial Services organised the hire worked closely with both the John Holland crew and Enerpac Construction Industry Manager, Darryl Lange who was onsite for technical backup and information for operators.

Karl highlighted the importance of being prepared well in advance of the John Holland project execution, with well maintained, quality gear.

“We had done a lot of preparation in setting up the equipment the day before. The equipment worked perfectly, the pumps and cylinders were great”.