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- Worthy of a champion: fischer fortifies the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
The new home of Spurs sets the standard in stadium construction: it has a football pitch that can be pulled in under the stands and an American football pitch underneath, the longest bar in Europe and the largest single-tier stand in England, seating 17,500 spectators. When the fans sing "When the Spurs go marching in", it sounds overwhelming. Due to the special acoustic requirements and the height of the ceilings, sliding ceiling connections were needed for all walls. "These were installed using our ULTRACUT FBS II concrete screw, which was brand new at the time. This was the first time we had sold this product in the UK, the ULTRACUT FBS II were installed at Tottenham Stadium straight after the product launch," says a delighted Dave Minton.
He heads fischer's technical sales in the UK and is responsible for major projects such as the construction of the new Tottenham Stadium. "We were the primary supplier for the technical and electrical fit-out, as well as for much of the interior fit-out of the stadium." In addition to the ULTRACUT FBS II concrete screws, the EA II drive-in anchors were mainly used here to fix sprinkler systems, cable routes and the like.
"We were able to beat the competition in façade installation because we save the customer money," Dave Minton tells us. "It's not necessarily about having the cheapest products. It's about identifying and solving problems as early as possible thanks to our advice. That saves money on installation." For the façade, the designers had only included through-bolts, although calculations showed that there were dynamic loads at certain points. "We noticed immediately during the design phase that the provided through-bolts were not sufficient. We advised our clients that a dynamic anchor had to be used instead. They eventually chose our FHB II highbond anchor rod." If the façade had been installed with the wrong fastening, everything would have had to be removed and re-installed. Not inconsiderable construction delays would have been the result.
"It is important that we have the most innovative and best performing products. But to complete a project as on time as possible, the service around the product is equally important," says Minton. "In the UK, we work to what is known as the BS-8539 standard for safety-related or structural fixings. All installers have to be trained in it, otherwise five per cent of fixings have to be retrospectively checked by the manufacturer." During the construction of the stadium, fischer therefore provided free training for all installers. "Our project team comes to the construction site in the morning and by lunchtime the training is already completed," Minton tells us. After that, the fischer employees only visit the construction site occasionally to see if everything is in order. "We make sure that the anchors are installed correctly right from the start, instead of having to make costly corrections to possible mistakes afterwards. This significantly reduces downtime on the construction site."
"It was a great honour for us to be involved in the construction of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium," concludes Minton. "Apart from Wembley Stadium, there is nothing else like it in the UK." The project is already having a wide impact: "Together with several contractors, we won the contract for the new Google headquarters in London as a result." Fastening specialist fischer is also supplying the electrical and technical contractor there.
