Premier League Stadium Upgrade
The project comprised the installation of a new gas service to serve the club’s new pitch heating 1,500kW gas boilers and the installation of new water and gas services to feed the clubs new Training Pavilion.
The brief was that the club was to remain in use during the works, the Pavilion had to be open within two months and the pitch heating had to be operational before the first frost of the winter. Installations were particularly complicated as the existing incoming gas and water service connections were located on opposite sides of the site to that of the new pitch heating plant and the Pavilion.
Load assessments were carried out to determine if the existing gas and water services were suitable for extension to the pitch heating and Pavilion plant. The assessments concluded that the existing water and gas supplies were only large enough to serve the Pavilion and that a new separate gas service was required to serve the pitch heating boilers. To achieve the Pavilion programme new connections were made into existing gas and water pipework and extended around the site to serve the building.
Multiple LPG and natural gas options were drawn up to determine the cheapest solution for getting a new gas supply to the pitch heating boilers. These involved options for new above and below ground LPG tanks, connection to a high capacity medium pressure gas main, connection to a low pressure gas main that was located in a nearby residential street and connection to a low pressure gas main that was in a playing field. The analysis concluded that connection to the low pressure gas main in the street was the cheapest option, so this option was progressed.
The installation of the gas main posed a particular problem as works were estimated to take 6 weeks to complete, they were due to be carried out during the football season and the main had to extend from one end of the site to the other via an access road that skirted the perimeter of football club stadium. This meant that fans would have to cross the main to gain access to the stadium during match days. To overcome the hazard/risk associated with installing the main in open trenches it was decided to micro bore the installation.
