The re-development of the Aviva Stadium, formerly Lansdowne Road, in Dublin is due for completion this summer on schedule and on budget. Simon Hopkins at Prysmian Cables & Systems takes a look at the extensive electrical cable installation.
Located in the Ballsbridge area of Dublin, Lansdowne Road was the oldest international rugby stadium in the World and had witnessed many changes since it first opened in 1872. Although more recently associated with rugby, the venue was originally intended to be a multi-sport facility hosting athletics, football and cricket. In fact it was not until 1878 that the first international rugby match was played there, and in the 1980s the Irish soccer team also began calling it home.
In 2004, details of the proposed redevelopment of the ground first surfaced, as the original was starting to show its age. In 2007, final approval was granted to rebuild a new 50,000 all-seater venue with all the essential facilities required for players, media and spectators in any modern stadium. The new ground will be known as the ‘Aviva Stadium’, the insurance giant securing naming rights for the next 10 years.
As with any large venue open to the public, life safety systems are of paramount importance. This is especially true for a stadium project, where tens of thousands of people could be at risk in the event of fire. This was why fire resistant cables had to be specified to power essential life safety circuits and fire alarm systems.
Up to the job
With the Aviva Stadium being such a high profile redevelopment, it is critical that any cable installed complied with all the necessary standards. For a cable to fail in the event of fire would not be an option, bearing in mind the many thousands of people likely to be present at any event. This was a central reason as to why a trusted cable brand such as Prysmian was chosen. During the planning stages, the decision was taken to opt for a robust, FP cable for the uninterruptible power supply (UPS), emergency lighting sub-mains cabling, fire alarm and life safety systems. More specifically, FP200 Gold from Prysmian is installed throughout the vast fire alarm system with FP400, also from the company, used to power the life safety systems. Also installed is approximately 85,000m of Prysmian’s MV and LV cable, used to bring power from the EirGrid network to the stadium itself, and distribute power around the internal structure.
It is important to ensure that any installed fire resistant cables comply with stringent Irish/European standards, which set the benchmark and provide specifiers and installers with the correct guidance and understanding about a cable’s fire survival time, flame propagation and smoke emissions. A particular requirement for the cable chosen for the stadium redevelopment is compliance with BSEN61034-2 for low smoke emissions and BSEN50267-2-1 halogen free.
Fire safety design
As stadia become even more complex and ambitious in their construction, it is also necessary to include fire safety into their design using fire safety engineering. Independent fire investigations show that many major fires could have been prevented if fire safety – both active and passive fire protection – had been included as an inherent design feature.
Consequently, for the Aviva Stadium, there is a sophisticated cause and effect fire alarm system featuring smoke detectors, sounders and auto shut down to plant and lifts. Also incorporated into this process was egress modelling used to optimise the maximum occupancy levels and to make sure that the evacuation time of the facility is within required limits.
At venues that attract large numbers of visitors not used to specific evacuation procedures, voice evacuation systems play a major role in ensuring that people are evacuated in a controlled and timely manner. The Aviva stadium solution allows staff to address certain areas or groups of people if the need arises. At the same time, it can also be used for public announcements such as advertising forthcoming events throughout different parts of the ground.
Installation challenges
Precision Cables of Dundalk, Co Louth supplied the cabling for the fire safety systems. A particular challenge on this installation was the logistics of getting large quantities of cable to site, storage, security and cutting required lengths. In total more than 50km of FP cable was used. With the stadium in a densely populated, urban residential area, cable could not be stored on site and delivery of product was subject to strict regulations.
To get around this, cable was only delivered to site when the contractors were ready to install it. Working to a 24-hour notice period, Precision Cables tasked a minimum of four employees to work on the supply and cutting of cable to the job. This involved tailoring cable to required lengths off site at Precision’s HQ before being delivered ready for immediate installation. Of course, with any large project such as this, there are unforeseen issues. A particular problem was how cable lengths specified at the planning stage changed once contractors reached the installation phase onsite. This required Precision to have sufficient stock of cable at all times, something that never actually became an issue throughout the job.
Furthermore, over the lifetime of the project, around 200 electricians worked on the electrical installation. Sean Cox, Sales Director at Precision Cables said: “Working to strict time constraints on large installations such as this requires accuracy and is helped by products that are easy to install and save time. The FP products chosen greatly improved the installation time compared with non-FP cable as they are dressable, yet flexible and not prone to festooning.”
In total, 18 months were taken to complete the electrical cable installation for the fire detection and life safety systems. As sections of the install were completed, all relevant electrical cables and circuits were tested and certified as safe and compliant before being handed over to the stadium owner as ready for use. The first game at the new venue between two combined provincial rugby teams, (Leinster/Ulster against a Munster/Connacht selection) is already scheduled for August 7th this year. Those in attendance will probably not give a second thought to the systems in place protecting them in the event of fire, but the provision of FP cables makes certain they will not have to.
