Press Release

Especially in the area of stadium and sports facility construction, the formwork challenges are extremely demanding regarding the geometrical and static requirements – this is frequently coupled with a short construction period. With a wide range of equipment and systems, as well as customer-oriented engineering services, PERI provides the optimal solution in each case for every requirement.

For the 2010 Football World Cup, four stadiums were built or extended with the help of PERI formwork and scaffolding systems which included the impressive 70,000 capacity Greenpoint Stadium in Cape Town. During the construction phase, the complete project support and rental logistics was handled by Wiehahn, PERI´s authorized dealer in South Africa.

In the following, four current examples of stadium building using reinforced concrete and precast concrete construction are highlighted where PERI engineers have developed project-specific overall concepts for a broad range of construction tasks. This includes the new national stadium in Warsaw whereby the availability of large quantities of formwork and scaffolding systems within a very short time greatly accelerated the construction progress. Further examples are the structural alterations of the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart during the ongoing Bundesliga season as well as the use of lightweight and heavier shoring systems in prefabricated construction and roof assembly.

National Stadium, Warsaw, Poland
The Warsaw national Stadium has seating for over 55,000 spectators as well as two parking levels for 1,800 cars which are located under the pitch. Construction work began in 2009 in order to be able finish in time to host five games for the 2012 European Football Championship. The complex building project with high quality requirements demanded an experienced construction team along with close and trustful cooperation of all parties involved. Maintaining the tight construction schedule meant that large quantities of system equipment had to be delivered to the building site within a short time – this was supplied from the PERI rental park and timed to coincide with the actual construction progress. In addition to the efficient and versatile formwork and scaffolding systems, the project planning and support provided by PERI engineers ensured problem-free and smooth construction progress.

The TRIO and DOMINO panel formwork systems could be used for both the foundations and wall sections, and facilitated fast shuttering times. MULTIFLEX slab formwork in connection with PEP and MULTIPROP slab props served as a high load-bearing basis for the construction of the massive and cavity slabs as well as the assembly of the partially pre-fabricated slabs. For forming the reinforced concrete columns, QUATTRO and VARIO GT 24 column formwork systems were combined – with increased architectural concrete requirements, these had already been pre-assembled and ready-to-use at the PERI formwork assembly facility. The comprehensive PERI concept was supplemented by the PERI UP scaffolding system which proved its versatility in providing access means, working platforms and a load-bearing system.

Structural alterations to the Mercedes-Benz Arena, Stuttgart, Germany
The Mercedes-Benz Arena is currently being converted into a pure football stadium. Through the lowering of the pitch by 1.30 m along with the new design for the two end fan sections, the capacity is being extended to 60,000 spectators. In addition, the opening of the membrane roofing has been reduced in size accordingly.

For the partially inclined walls, TRIO panel formwork and TRIO Structure as well as VARIO GT 24 girder wall formwork are being used. PERI UP reinforcement scaffold serves as access means for all work required to be carried out on the formwork.

VARIO column formwork elements were accurately pre-assembled at the PERI assembly hall. In particular, the BAM Deutschland AG construction team have thus achieved the best possible concrete surface results with the inclined supports – closely matching the visual appearance of the prefabricated units also being installed.

"ratiopharm arena“ Multi-Functional Hall, Neu-Ulm, Germany
Contractor is Neumarkt-based Max Bögl which is also the future operator of the ratiopharm arena. As of December 2011, the multi-functional hall will accommodate up to 6,000 spectators for the home games of the Ulm Bundesliga basketball team. In addition, the arena is also to be used for cultural events – for concerts with capacity increasing up to 9,000 spectators.

For the turnkey construction using prefabricated elements, the Bögl construction team has used the PERI MULTIPROP system: for transferring loads at heights of up to 13 m, lightweight aluminum MULTIPROP slab props are connected with MULTIPROP frames to form shoring towers. The modular load-bearing system can be very flexibly adapted to suit individual project conditions and is easy to handle. Pre-assembly of the shoring towers effected was carried out horizontally on the ground, with the lightweight individual components and wedge connections on both the outer and inner tubes accelerating the assembly process.

In addition, the MULTIPROP post shores can be used on site as individual props to achieve a larger range of heights. Compared to steel tube props, the MULTIPROP has a lower weight and a load-bearing capacity of up to 90 kN. Due to the continuous thread, it is usable for a large range of heights and can be accurately adjusted by means of the integrated measuring tape without the need of time-consuming measurements.

Grand Ice Rink, Sotschi, Russia
The new VARIOKIT heavy-duty shoring tower serves as load-bearing scaffold for the large bridge and civil engineering projects. Each leg can carry a load of around 600 kN. As part of the VARIOKIT engineering construction kit, PERI has used multi-purpose system components, also for this heavy-duty shoring tower, which are completely rentable. Pins and bolts as standardized connecting parts allow simple and rapid assembly. Special components and time-consuming in situ welded structures locally are no longer required.

The roof construction of the new ice arena in the Russian Olympic city of Sochi is supported by a total of 17 steel girders, each one up to 12 m high. These bridge the complete 94 m stadium width and have a spacing of 7.00 m to 7.50 m. Two free-standing, 37.50 m high shoring tower frames from the new PERI VARIOKIT heavy-duty shoring system serve as assembly support in the respective one third and two thirds of the length. The girders – with individual lengths of 2 x 28 m and 1 x 38 m – are pre-assembled on the ground inside the stadium itself in order that they are subsequently lifted up to their final position with the crane and connected to each other at a height of 40 m. The individual girder elements have a weight of up to 30 t.

Two or three supporting shoring towers respectively with 2.00 x 7.25 m basic grid dimensions were connected at 5.00 m spacings by means of standard SRU steel walers and ties to form stable, free-standing shoring tower sections. These could be moved according to the construction progress in a longitudinal direction to the next segment. Assembly of the VARIOKIT heavy-duty shoring towers was carried out horizontally on the ground using 10 m sections. After this, these were set in an upright position with the crane and extended to the final height of 37.50 m.

The dead weight of the roof steel girders resulted in point loads of 300 kN for each of the five shoring towers which meant leg loads of "only" 75 kN. The PERI solution with the free-standing VST towers nevertheless proved to be the most cost-effective variant because conventional modular scaffolding systems at such large heights would have be to be erected as spatial load-carrying constructions which is an extremely time-consuming process.