Formerly New Perth Stadium, Optus Stadium was completed in 2018 and accommodates permanent seating for up to 60,000 patrons, with potential for expansion of up to 70,000 seats. The Stadium forms a permanent centrepiece for the wider sports and entertainment precinct on Burswood Peninsula on the Swan River.

Procured and delivered through a Design & Construct Managing Contract BG&E was engaged as a subconsultant to Arup to provide both civil and structural engineering services for the Stadium and wider precinct development.

Structural scope

For the structural component of the project, BG&E provided the detailed structural engineering design, modelling and documentation for the stadium substructure components.

Due to the presence of underlying soft alluvial soil materials with high consolidation settlement characteristics a piled foundation system was adopted to found the steel framed Stadium structure and the Event Level concourse ground slab. Driven concrete piles were selected to avoid handling, treatment and management of the contaminated soils.

Co-ordinating with the super-structure team, BG&E developed pile layouts, designed all pile-caps and the suspended Event Level slab. Due to the high soil settlements below slab services were integrated into the slab using thickenings or in suspended service trenches.

In addition, BG&E designed and documented the external ticketing gates structures and external landscaping structures and assisted the Contractor with temporary works designs for components of the super-structure.

Civil scope

Taking the Lead for the Civil design, BG&E’s team focused on addressing the existing land conditions of the 73-hectare precinct. The civil works and stormwater design philosophy was to provide a sustainable and environmentally considerate design solution integrated with the interfaces of the surrounding State Transport Infrastructure and the landscaping vision and design for the Sports Precinct.

Given the soft underlying soil materials, our Civil team had to work to the existing ground levels, as significant fill would trigger long term consolidation settlement. This approach was adopted to avoid ongoing maintenance of the pavements, roads, in-ground services, and key landscaped areas such as the community oval.

This was undertaken over the asset’s design life while minimising the impact of the design and construction on the surrounding important ecological features such as the Swan River and River-fed Lake.