Civil Engineering at the Rugby World Cup

As the Rugby World Cup draws to a close, some of you may have noticed some of the games have been played at the Olympic Stadium. And with West Ham United set to move into the ground next year, there has been a hell of a lot of engineering work going on to make sure the venue was ready. This fantastic article from iCould demonstrates why engineering outperformed the home nations’ rugby teams: 

Since the end of the Olympic Games in 2012, a major project has been underway to transform the park’s stadium for future use. This means installing a new roof and strengthening the building, new seating, lighting, toilets, turnstiles, and kitchens, and refitting the interiors with new dressing rooms and executive boxes.

The project involves a large number of apprentices, from office roles to pipe laying and ground-leveling works. For trainee engineer Zavier, working on such an iconic project has been a real bonus, “For years to come, I can say I partook in that, which is awesome, ” he says. WATCH VIDEO

“You’re not stuck at a desk all day long,” explains package manager Chris who is responsible for works to hold the new roof up and to make the bridges more in keeping with those around the park. “We’ve got ground workers, who are sort of the guys digging the holes. We’ve had steel fixers and the guys placing the concrete and the reinforced concrete works,” he continues, “Painters, pipelayers, bricklayers, people building dry line plasterboard walls. This job’s got everything.” WATCH VIDEO

Stuart is the project director in charge of the transformation project and oversees everything from design management to buying materials, “It’s  been really exciting and really satisfying,” he says,”It’s very much a people business and it’s about working with people, building teams, working as part of teams and really adding something to that team.” WATCH VIDEO

Work has been paused to host five matches of the Rugby World Cup 2015 and will start again in December. The stadium is due for completion in summer 2016 when it will become the new national competition centre for UK Athletics and the home of West Ham United.

The stadium in numbers

• 21,000 seats
• 995 toilets
• 540 lamps in 14 floodlight panels
• 90 turnstiles
• 35 catering outlets
• 16 executive boxes

At The Sheffield College, we offer an incredible range of engineering courses and apprenticeships. To find out more, and whether it might be right for you, please follow this link.