GOOD NEWS:Everton has finally announces plans to expand Bramley-Moore Dock stadium….

As the initial overground structure emerges from newly-laid foundations at Bramley-Moore Dock, focus turns to the framework of Everton’s iconic new home.

Work on all four corners of the 52,888-seater stadium will soon offer a first real glimpse of the scale of the project.

And as construction enters a new phase, years of advance planning on a pioneering ‘digital build’ is about to come to fruition.

Everton’s stadium is being pieced together using a technologically advanced method known as Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA).

Work has begun to manufacture the 11,000 pre-cast concrete components which will form the new stadium’s superstructure and internal bowl. Many of these will come from Laing O’Rourke’s specialist factory in Nottinghamshire, and be transported to site for just-in-time assembly.

By adopting modern methods of construction based on off-site manufacturing, and meticulously planning production schedules in advance, Laing O’Rourke’s technical team has been able to use less cement in the concrete mixes for these components and so reduce the overall embodied carbon in the stadium build.

These manufactured building blocks will arrive on site in a pre-determined order and effectively be slotted together utilising 3D modelling, in turn forming the floors, walls, and supporting pillars in preparation for the steel skeleton and brickwork skin.

Ben Townsley, Senior Project Manager at Laing O’Rourke, explained: “In many ways, it’s a huge complex assembly, rather than traditional construction.

“Concrete is something that has been around since Roman times, but the way in which we are manufacturing it, is pioneering.

“In this case, thousands of the building’s components are being precast in our manufacturing facility, which we’ve had now for over 10 years.

“We take the building design, and manufacture bespoke products. Traditionally, we wouldn’t complete the design for the concrete frame until maybe the end of this year.