Though Brisbane's main football stadium is officially known as Suncorp Stadium, it will always be Lang Park to diehard rugby league fans. The Lang Park Joint Venture (Multiplex and Watpac) is completing redevelopment of the stadium to be ready for the State of Origin series and the Rugby Union World Cup later in the year.

The stadium has a roof on all four sides, and the structure for this has been fabricated and erected by Brisbane-based Sun Engineering.

For construction manager Mark McMonagle the project was a source of both frustration and satisfaction: the frustration coming from the unanticipated need to do a full design analysis of the permanent structure and subsequently construct substantially additional temporary structures, and the satisfaction coming from the project being executed successfully through effective planning and a dedicated team approach.

In simple terms the structure consists of a node at each corner of the stadium, with a tubular steel roof truss between each of the nodes. Each node is supported by two legs and a rear tension rod in the permanent structure, but was temporarily supported by two strand jacking towers during construction.

Fabrication took place on a hard stand in the centre of the arena, with the nodes constructed upside down in a jig, then turned prior to erection. The trusses were fabricated on their side in 45m sections in a jig, with the sections placed on the grandstand, joined, and then winched into position.

Space was at a premium in the arena, where the fabricated structures and a wide range of cranes shared the stage. Mark made extensive use of 3D modelling combined with laser measuring to obtain precise fabrication and erection of the structures. 3D modelling was also used to plan the fabrication and erection sequences, as well as the detailed crane lift analysis, and in some instances he had to plan for less than a metre of clearance between the crane boom and the load.

Cranes used on the job included a 400t Demag all terrain crane, a 300T Kobelco 7300 crawler crane, a 150t Kobelco 7150 crawler crane, a 150t Favco 300 lattice boom truck crane, a 100t Sumitomo crawler crane, 60t P&H 670TC lattice boom truck crane, a 50t Grove hydraulic truck crane, and 50t and 20t rough terrain cranes.

The nodes each weighed 100t, and required three cranes to flip them after fabrication. However a combination of good procedures and operators meant that by the end of the project these could be flipped in an hour. The truss sections were walked into their temporary resting position on the grandstand using two cranes.

Some of the problems overcome included competing for airspace with the five tower cranes on site, which restricted when the mobile cranes could be used, the need to ensure that the local residential community was not disturbed by work, the need to commence welding before the steel temperature reached 20ºC, and the sheer congestion. Once the stadium walls reached sufficient height to contain light and sound, Sun Engineering was able to work at night, and this assisted it to maintain the work schedule, due to there being less competition for space.

Source: www.infolink.com.au

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