Early completion of first Perth Stadium works

Pre-construction site works at the new Perth Stadium have finished six weeks ahead of schedule, bringing the State one step closer to the start of construction on the world-class venue.

Terry Waldron visited the stadium site today to congratulate the project team and contractor, Ertech Keller Joint Venture, on achieving this significant works milestone.

“The pre-construction site works are critical to ensure the ground is fully prepared for the stadium and sports precinct construction due to start at the end of 2014,” Mr Barnett said.

“The work involved the compaction of nine hectares across key areas of the site and installation of 55,459 wick drains to provide a drainage path for groundwater up to the surface. More than 740,000 tonnes of sand surcharge was then placed across the site. The sand will be left to settle for the next six to nine months, ensuring optimal ground conditions ahead of the start of construction.”

Sport and Recreation Minister Terry Waldron said environmental and settlement monitoring would continue during this period. Some parts of the site will settle up to two metres – at an average of four to 10mm per day.

“The length of the wick drains inserted into the site would stretch from Perth to South Hedland if laid end-to-end, and the volume of sand surcharge placed across the site would fill 288 Olympic-size swimming pools,” Mr Waldron said.

“We shouldn’t under-estimate the enormity of the physical works that have been undertaken on this site. Despite the geotechnical challenges associated with building on the Burswood Peninsula, the State Government ensured the proper planning, investigations and modelling were undertaken, resulting in a fantastic outcome.”

Meanwhile, the Minister said the rigorous evaluation of the three proposals to design, build, partially finance and maintain the new Perth Stadium and sports precinct continued on schedule.

Each proposal is several thousand pages long and responds to the technical, operational and commercial requirements set in the Request for Proposals documentation. The successful consortium and its design will be announced mid-year.