Sport
Steel scores for City
12 NSC
Apr 20
Leicester City Football Club has
big plans and is building on the
success of its Premier League
winning season of 2015-16 by
constructing one of the largest training
facilities in the UK.
Located north of the city on a
former golf course and fishing centre at
Charnwood, the training centre is set
around a main signature steel-framed
building that houses a full-size indoor
artificial pitch, which has been designed to
blend into the surrounding landscape.
Structural steelwork is playing a
leading role in the project, not just in the
construction programme, but also in its
design aspect.
The landmark building that houses the
full-size pitch is a large domed structure,
offering a clear span of 74m × 122m and
featuring built-up grass embankments on
either side, helping to make it partially
subterranean and sit comfortably in the
rural setting.
The design of this 24m-high building
went through a few changes and, according
to KSS Project Architect Lorenzo Pierini,
the original concept for the building
envisaged a lightweight timber diagrid roof
supporting translucent ETFE panels. This
was then modified several times, until the
most cost-effective solution was arrived at.
The final design consists of a series of 13
arched steel trusses, set at approximately
9.3m centres, supporting a box section steel
diagrid and a series of intermediate arched
rafters set at 4.65m centres.
The arched trusses are approximately
3.6m deep at mid span, reducing to 1.9m
at the eaves. They are restrained laterally
by a steel diagrid on the bottom boom
constructed of 300mm × 300mm box
sections. The intermediate arched rafters
are supported off the diagrid and propped
up on circular hollow section struts.
The roof structure is supported on steel
columns on either side of the hall which sit
approximately 2m inside of stability-giving
reinforced concrete retaining walls.
This allowed the steel structure to be
erected in advance of the retaining walls
and made provision to accommodate
construction and erection tolerances
between the steel trusses and the concrete
walls.
Further stability for the steel roof is
provided by the press and media centre,
which is a two-storey steel-framed lean-to
structure that is positioned on one side of
the indoor pitch.
Each truss was fabricated by steelwork
contractor BHC in four welded parts,
which were transported to site and then
bolted together into two halves. The splice
connections take the form of concealed
bolted connections with cover plates.
BHC’s erection process involved lifting
two halves of each truss into place, using
two 80t-capacity mobile cranes, and then
making the final central bolted connection,
A signature steel-framed structure housing a full-size football
pitch is the focal point of Leicester City’s new state-of-the-art
training centre.
FACT FILE
Leicester City Football
Club Training Centre
Main client:
Leicester City FC
Architect: KSS
Main contractor:
McLaren Construction
Structural engineer:
TRP Consulting
Steelwork contractor:
BHC
Steel tonnage: 1,700t
The three-storey
training centre building
will include an hotel
The indoor pitch
structure has been
designed to blend into
the landscape
/Braced_frames
/Construction
/Design
/Trusses
/Steel_construction_products#Structural_hollow_sections
/Construction#Tolerances
/Concept_design#Structural_options_for_stability
/Fabrication
/Fabrication#Handling_and_transportation
/Construction#Mobile_cranes