Optus Stadium, formerly known as the New Perth Stadium, was completed in 2018 and has capacity for 60,000 patrons and a provision for future expansion of up to 70,000 seats. It is located approximately five kilometres from the State’s capital city and is the third largest stadium in Australia.

BG&E provided civil and structural engineering services for the innovative development.

Our civil engineering experts addressed the existing land conditions of the 73-hectare precinct, to reduce the ongoing maintenance of the pavements, roads, in-ground services and key landscaped areas. The design also took into consideration interfaces with the surrounding transport infrastructure, ensuring an integrated approach to the civil and landscaping works was delivered.

Given the poor ground conditions and associated settlements, all ground slabs are suspended on the piled foundations with all services integrated into the slab using thickenings and service trenches. The stadium superstructure is a steel frame with overall stability provided by reinforced concrete walls which are configured to match the overall planning of the stadium and coincide with lift shafts, service core and plant rooms that extend through the height of the building.

The suspended slabs from level one-to-level five have been designed as conventional reinforced concrete slabs cast on Bondek to eliminate the need for propping during construction. The seating plats are precast prestressed concrete elements spanning a double grid of around 12 metres. The seating elements are generally single elements to simplify the pre-casting process and to limit the weight for lifting during installation.

The structural roof is a three-dimensional triangulated steel truss cantilever with a small back span to minimise the roof envelope. Fabric has been installed to the underside of the trusses which provides a triangulated open truss to the top. This roof structure was chosen to satisfy the client’s requirement for a roof system that was prop-free and modulated.