Building a new football stadium for Brighton & Hove Albion FC demanded a sustainable stormwater attenuation solution.
The Challenge
Every football fan has known the disappointment of a postponed game when rain creates a waterlogged pitch. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Large stadiums can manage heavy rainfall without flooding with the right rainwater management solution.
Stormwater management and surface drainage are becoming more important across all kinds of infrastructure projects – and football stadia are no exception. Efficient water management, rainfall capture and flood prevention all play roles in keeping the playing field ready for action… and smart, innovative water tanks hit the goal.
When Brighton & Hove Albion FC was building a new stadium – an expandable 25,000 seat venue set three storeys down into the ground, the project management engineers knew they needed to plan for stormwater attenuation and considered the surrounding terrain – chalk – which made soakaways, which are tanks strategically placed under the stadium, the most suitable solution.
The Solution
The project employed solutions from the ViaCon Group, to achieve sustainable drainage. The project was proposed as a highly cost-efficient scheme to be located in and serving the stadium’s concourse and car parking areas. About 138,000 cubic metres of chalk were excavated for the stadium’s construction, which was put on the field on the south side of Village Way. This has been estimated to have saved 20,000 lorry trips taking the chalk to landfill.
The project design included a series of three soakaway tanks to match the available space, the ground conditions and the required performance level, working closely with the contractors and the consulting engineers.
The final installation at the stadium is a 2.8-metre diameter, 32-metre long tank of three legs to the northwest; a 3-metre diameter, 15-metre long tank of two legs to the southeast; and a single-leg, 2.3-metre diameter, 46-metre-long tank to the southwest.
Technical specifications
SPECIFICATIONS
The ViaCon Advantage
Choosing ViaCon for stormwater attenuation solutions enabled:
