The Co-op Live arena represents a new vision of culture for sporting, music, and cultural events. Located in Manchester, in the heart of the sport and recreation district area at the Etihad Campus, and with a capacity of 23,500, the venue will be the largest live music venue in the UK.
The project consists of a steel frame building superstructure with composite concrete floor plates, stabilised by 7 concrete cores over 6 levels. Additionally, 2 concrete water tanks for the sprinkler system, were required. Due to extremely onerous program constraints a precast concrete solution for the cores and sprinkler tanks was selected. The design and modelling of the cores was undertaken in Tekla Structures to meet the requirements and expectations of the architects, structural engineers, mechanical and electrical engineers and the concrete frame contractor, P.J. Carey Ltd.
Oran Pre-cast provided all precast elements with an special finish in accordance with EN 13670, using advanced manufacturing technology for twinwall and solidwall ensured the concrete finish met all architectural requirements. Connections between the precast cores and steel superstructure, in addition to service integration and construction restraints all presented challenges at the modelling stage.
A question of collaboration and coordination
The key to success has been close collaboration with all design team members and construction teams, producing BIM models with a high level of detail, to ensure full co-ordination of various BIM models and integration and implementation of design intent and specification. To correctly describe all challenges, we need to look not only at the design as a whole and manufacture process but also on the construction team’s requirements and constraints.
A major challenge for this project was coordination, connection and installation of precast structure allowing for connection of the steel structure and composite concrete floor plates, which would be installed following completion of the precast cores. To achieve this, the modelling was coordinated between the precast concrete engineer, the structural engineer, steel fabricator and construction manager in BIM collaboration. This was quite often an iterative process, using the precast Tekla Structures model and the design teams models to resolve issues and clashes posed by the design requirements and manufacturing processes.
Cast-in elements, as required by various members of the design team and the construction team for connection of steel structure and stability of the precast elements during erection, were modelled with the precast concrete elements in the Tekla model. This provided clear design intent and information for the design team to approve/comment on the design. The construction team also benefitted from the use of the Tekla model for installation, sequencing, and co-ordination of precast elements on site. This project is one of the first of its kind on this scale and complexity where twinwall precast panels with full connection and integration of a steel frame superstructure has been constructed in the UK.
Of all the complexities of the project, the panelization, joint location and exposed finish were the most challenging aspects both for modelling and production. We met all architectural and client requirements, in addition to the needs of the construction team and other design team members, efficiently and effectively using Tekla Structures software to produce clear and concise design documentation and information to a high level of detail. This process was made more efficient in Tekla Structures and Trimble Connect by easy comparison of various design team members models, identifying clashes and modelling issues, which would not have been possible with traditional 2D modelling.
The design process
For the design process Tekla software has met our expectation and provided the most efficient tools and components for creating the model and all documentation. Unitechnik files exported from the model to the automated plant presented the biggest challenge for this project. The number of different items cast in to the various concrete stages, such as; steel plates, additional reinforcement, steel girders, the digital manufacturing information had to exported to automated robotic manufacturing plant without causing clashes of errors, thus avoiding potential impact on the production and unnecessary delays. The delivered documentation with BIM model to allow our team to quickly check and avoid issues with potential clashes and limitations in our automatic plant manufacture process.
Important points or benefits:
- Oran Pre-cast were responsible for delivering the precast structure which consisted of the following elements:
- Twinwall panels with thickness 200-400mm, exposed finish
- Precast columns, exposed finish
- Precast deep beam
- Steel roof truss support
- Hollowcore slabs and twinwall panels for water retaining sprinkler tanks
- 7 Precast cores fully integrated with steel structure
- 12926sqm of twinwall panels with exposed finish
- Two sprinkler tanks designed in precast to accommodation 500m3 of water
- 1235 no. precast elements
- Twinwall panels with range of thickness 200-400mm
