Austin, Texas, USA
With over 120 years of history, the University of Texas’ Longhorns programme is one of the most highly regarded collegiate athletics programmes in the United States and play at a stadium befitting their status; in fact, the Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium is the 9th largest stadium in the world.
Texas Longhorn’s legend, Darrell K Royal, was made the namesake for the stadium in 1996 which at that point seated 77,809 fans; but the latest revisions to the stadium plans have pushed that number far higher, with the record attendance figure now reaching a staggering 103,507.
RMD Kwikform’s Alshor Plus lightweight shoring system made a successful college football debut in America with its use in the construction of the stadium’s new stand, as part of a multi-million-dollar development for the University of Texas, allowing the Texas Longhorns to enjoy support from one of the largest crowds in college football.
The project itself involved the infilling of one end of the stadium known as the ‘North End Zone’ with a new stand that increased the seating capacity of the whole ground from 75,000 to 98,638. This resulted in a new attendance record of 98,053, showcasing that the new stand immediately enhanced the spectator and players experience.
For our North America CEO, John Richey, the use of Alshor Plus for the project in itself broke the sports’ traditional mould, as he explained:
Traditionally in the American market stadia developments of this nature tend to use steel shoring and timber-based formwork systems. The use of Alshor Plus was therefore a complete change for the industry, replacing heavy steel and timber with lightweight aluminium, almost like putting a tailback behind the offensive line!
For contractor Rago, meeting the short deadline of six months to complete the lower deck of the stand before the first game of the season required the use of a proven system that could be erected and dismantled quickly and efficiently.
John continues: “When you bring a new product, and therefore new working methods, to an established and mature market like the USA, it is important to make sure you provide the support needed to enable a smooth transition from traditional techniques to a system approach.
Location
Application
Slab formwork for a new stand and shoring support
Challenge
In order to get the stadium expansion ready in time for the new season, the project had a very tight timeframe of just six months. The stand also featured a tiered structure that tapers toward the top, requiring a system that was easily adjustable on site.
Solution
Slab formwork system and shoring support
Alshor Plus is itself a successful global product that has been used on some of the most impressive projects in the world, like the Dubai Airport and the world’s largest Hospital in Qatar, its use for the Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium stand development was really made possible thanks to its successful application in the construction of a water tank in Albuquerque.
The construction of the structure itself involved the formation of a 10-level stand with a pre-cast concrete slab used to form the seating area, ultimately supported by a number of concrete columns and 6 ft thick in-situ concrete beams. The role of Alshor Plus was to shore up the aluminium primary and secondary beams supporting the plywood face for the in-situ beams.
Because of the tiered nature of the structure, a range of Alshor Plus legs sizes were used with the adjustable jack and in-built quick release mechanism also used to obtain the exact levels required for the design. With frames used to stabilise the legs, which have a capacity to withstand loads of up to 1250 psf, the tallest Alshor Plus tower reached up to over 70 feet.
John: “The beauty of this project was its modular style build and symmetry, as a number of Alshor Plus towers could be assembled at the same time and then just moved into place. The traditional method of constructing shoring here tends to be based around constructing towers in the horizontal on the ground and then lifting them up into place using cranes. Having tested our approach with the Albuquerque water tank we were able to give this additional option to the erection team, enhancing the safety aspect of using Alshor Plus further still.”