Gabba The Story Continues
Gabba The Story Continues
Gabba The Story Continues
Structural
Casebook Issue number 17
October 2000
Description No. of General Corporate Corporate Total No. of Total Av. Cost Steel
Bays Seating Suites Boxes Seating Seating Cost per Seat Tonnage
(12p) (8-10p) Tiers ($M) ($)
Stage 3 - Northern Stand
(built 1995) 15 9,132 19 27 9592 2 36.8 38361 450
Stage 4 - Eastern Stand 18 13,144 39 0 13612 2&3 35.7 2170 559
Stage 4 - Western Stand 5 2,445 11 30 2835 3 combined combined 201
Stage 5 - Southern Stand 15 10,455 20 31 10961 3 41.5 37861 660
TOTAL 53 37,000 Total Seating $114M 1870T
Stages 3-5 Stages 3-5
Note 1: The cost per seat for Stages 3 & 5 is significantly higher than Stage 4 due to extensive basement construction works.
Structure & Construction • Maintained the majority of structural works being
prefabricated off site, thereby eliminating congested
Watpac Australia Pty Ltd (Watpac), having built the storage of material on what was an extremely tight site.
existing Northern Stand in 1995, successfully tendered • Enabled pre-finished structural and architectural
for the following Stage 4 contract and were appointed as elements to be combined and erected in single phases,
Managing Contractors for the works. This comprised the which proved to be time effective. This also enabled
18 bay Eastern Stand and the 5 bay Western Stand, with immediate flow of subtrades to pre-finished areas.
the developed design forming the basis of the scope of “This last point was of particular benefit when
work. The Eastern Stand was completed in March 1999, constructing the majority of works over Stanley and
one month earlier than scheduled, and the Western Stand Vulture Streets where access and traffic restrictions meant
was delivered on time for match use in May 1999. Watpac that speed of construction was paramount,” Gary said.
were again successful tenderers and were appointed “The use of structural steel as the major building
by the Trust to manage the design, documentation and element was further supported by the introduction of the
construction of Stage 5 for agreed fees, preliminaries and project specific Fire Engineering Design Brief (FEDB),”
margin. The design consultants were novated to Watpac. he said.
A Guaranteed Maximum Contract Sum was developed “The introduction of this brief enabled the level of fire
and agreed, and a share of savings arrangement risks to be established based on the nature of occupancy
implemented. and building classification class. The FEDB provided
Structural steel was used extensively throughout all economical design solutions which were carried
stages of construction as the basic structural framework throughout the design process and further encouraged
to support the seating, concourse and back of house the extensive use of structural steel as the primary
amenity areas. The innovative design of the initial framework without further fire protective site treatment.”
elliptical grid for the master plan by Daryl Jackson Design and construction challenges posed by the
Architects required economical design solutions. land-locked nature of the site to the north were overcome
Watpac, in conjunction with structural engineers Robert previously by cantilevering the existing Northern Stand
Bird & Partners and with input from OneSteel (formerly over busy Vulture Street. The new Southern Stand posed
BHP Steel), decided upon structural steel to provide an even greater challenge due to the need to cantilever
these solutions. 13m over the four-lane Stanley Street. Consulting civil
According to Watpac Design Manager, Gary Gisik, and structural engineers for Stages 4 and 5, Robert Bird
structural steel not only provided an innovative design & Partners Pty Ltd, recreated the structural framing
solution for the primary structure, but also delivered solution they adopted on the previous Northern Stand.
the following additional benefits: The system was modified to accommodate new design
• Enhanced the architectural intent developed by the features such as an additional tier to the Western and
architect’s master plan. Southern Stands and part of the Eastern Stand, the
• Provided cost effective design solutions to support relocation of the Hill Scoreboard to the Western Stand
seating plats and large spans for suspended concourse and the dramatic cantilevering of the Southern Stand
areas. over Stanley Street.
Fire Engineering
Existing Northern Stand – fire engineering revisited
The existing three storey Northern Stand is not
sprinklered and, under the deemed-to-satisfy require-
ments of the Building Code of Australia (BCA) is
classified as Class 9b and 5, requiring Type A construction
and an FRL of 120 minutes for the structure.
An application was made to the Queensland Building
Tribunal to vary the building regulations to permit the
use of fire engineering analysis and unprotected steel
framing. An analysis of the effects of fire on the structural
steel components (carried out by BHP Research) accom-
panied the application. The analysis considered the effect
of a non-sprinklered 'flashover' fire in various parts of the
building. This was done by using methods that take into
account the fire load appropriate to the particular area,
the ventilation or openings available and the size
of the various enclosures. The presence of ceilings was
recognised and their beneficial effect on reducing steel
temperatures was taken into account.
The BHP report only addressed the issue of structural
adequacy and showed that unprotected steelwork would
perform adequately in fire and could be used in most
locations within the structure. The application was
approved, enabling savings of approximately $0.5M
in the cost of passive fire protection to steelwork.
In summary, the Northern Stand is not sprinklered.
It incorporates a smoke exhaust system in the Level 2
concourse and the structure comprises generally
unprotected steel. A more detailed account of the fire
design is to be found in BHP Structural Steel Casebook
No.13, November 1996. Following on from the experience
of the Gabba Northern Stand, and other major stadia,
BHP published “The Design of Sports Stand Buildings
for Fire Safety” [Ref 1].
New Eastern, Western and Southern Stands - Grandstand construction differs from that of a typical
public or office building situation in that it is usually of
fire safety and the things that really matter open layout, has generally low fire loads and is infre-
The proposed encirclement of the Gabba with grand- quently occupied. The risk to life safety and the risk of
stand construction meant that the resultant building was property damage and interruption of operations are
much larger than the existing Northern Stand. This raised minimised if fires are kept small. United States retail
questions about the need for compartmentation and building fire statistics show that the greater the recorded
indeed whether the owners and operators could afford to spread of flame of the fire (which is generally reflective
have a major fire in such a public building. It also raised of the size of fire), the greater the likelihood of death.
questions as to whether a sprinkler system should be Thus sprinklers - which keep the fire small - have a very
incorporated in the buildings, even though the BCA significant positive effect on life safety, greater in fact
deemed-to-satisfy regulations do not specifically than other measures such as structural fire protection
require it. or smoke detection.
Fire Walls
From a deemed-to-satisfy regulatory point of view,
firewalls may be introduced to reduce the compartment
size, in order to:
• eliminate the need for sprinklers
• reduce the hydrant capacity required
• eliminate the need for smoke control.
Fire statistics show that compartmentation within
buildings such as these is not effective in preventing the
spread of fire. Perhaps this is because all compartments
have significant openings at their boundaries and these
represent a weakness, or that the fire is so large by the
time the compartment boundaries are reached, that it
cannot be effectively contained. Openings within
firewalls are protected with fire doors, which are
obviously necessary in order to attempt to maintain
compartmentation. However, the presence of these doors
may present a natural obstruction to the occupants who
are trying to evacuate. Thus, from the point of view of
enhancing the likelihood of successful evacuation, fire
doors are not a good idea. Yet a firewall cannot be a
firewall without a fire door! Thus it is argued that such Top: Eastern Stand, L4 transfer beams.
walls will not be generally helpful with respect to the Above: Fire-fighting equipment at the new stand.
evacuation of the occupants.
Hydrant Capacity New Eastern, Western and Southern Stands –
Based on studies reported in “Fire Safety in Shopping the fire-engineered solution
Centres” [Ref 2], it can be inferred that hydrant capacity
sufficient to run two hose streams simultaneously at full A performance-based design was carried out by
capacity will be required to successfully fight a fire that OneSteel in conjunction with Norman Disney & Young,
has spread to several standard corporate suites, or an the project building and fire services consultant. The BHP
equivalent area. Beyond that, additional capacity may publication “Design of Sports Stand Buildings for Fire
be required. Safety” was included in the OneSteel submission. After
The required hydrant capacity as given in AS2419.1 consideration by the consulting team, Watpac, Qld Fire
is related to compartment area. This presupposes two & Rescue Authority and Project Services, the publication
things - that fire size is related to compartment area; and was accepted by the approving authority (Project
that compartmentation is likely to be effective. The latter Services) as the Fire Engineering Design Brief (FEDB) for
assumption has been challenged and the former raises the project. The submission identified the relevant BCA
the question as to how extensive a credible fire could performance requirements and documented how these
become in one of these buildings.2 If it is decided that the requirements were satisfied by the FEDB.
most extensive credible fire in a non-sprinklered building The fire-engineered solution resulted in sprinklered
will not go beyond several corporate suites or an construction utilising an unprotected steel frame, with
equivalent area, then no further capacity is required. a consequent saving in the cost of passive fire protection
If it is decided that a credible fire could extend beyond to the steel frame of approximately $1.3M. By avoiding
such a localised area, then additional hydrant capacity compartmentation of the new construction, the overall
must be provided - although if the fire gets large enough, complex is better integrated, and allows the free
it will be very difficult to fight or control. The addition of movement of people.
sprinklers to the building will allow the hydrant capacity Specifically, the following fire safety features are
to remain at the lower level. significant in the new construction:
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