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Koke

Championship - 2021/2022

By Koke, in General Football and Sport

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The Bear

The Bear

Posted
Posted

Birmingham City come clean about their stands being shut for ages. Absolute shit tip, just knock it down and be done with it. 

 

Birmingham City break silence over the open wound that is St Andrew's stand closures

A third of St Andrew's has been closed for remedial works - with a lack of communication from Birmingham City.

After months of silence Birmingham City have finally revealed the full extent of the stadium repairs which mean sections of St Andrew’s remain shut more than a year after safety issues came to light.

Problems with the stadium emerged in December 2020 when a structural survey meant the Kop and Tilton Road stands were immediately closed – and have remained so to this day.

While there is no exact date for reopening of the whole ground – the club’s project manager Michael Moran expressed hope that some sections – if not the entire stadium, could be available for supporters at the start of next season. The club is also giving consideration to installing safe standing in some areas.

However, what became clear in a special presentation from Moran was the difficulties the club have experienced as soon as the remedial works started and the conditions under the stands became apparent.

Moran, who was appointed in August 2021 outlined how industry pressures around the availability of labour and materials – as well as the sheer scope of the works have caused delays.

“It has grown and grown and grown over time as the issues have presented themselves,” Moran said.

“A lot of what we have dealt with are legacy issues. Our brief was to reinstate the stadium to its original design and a lot of the problems we have stem from a lack of access.

“The stands were built over the old terraces which were broken up and at a time when regulations for maintenance were not as good.

“The upper tier areas required trained operatives who effectively abseil into position – these are highly skilled people, some of whom operate on oil rigs – and it’s a niche market which suffers from high demand. We wanted to flood it with operatives but there are only so many you can get your hands on.”

When workers first went into under the Tilton they found standing water, the source of which had to be identified and addressed.

There was also corrosion on rakers, particularly on the lower tiers and there was also rubble, including heavy lumps of concrete, which had to be removed to allow access to areas some of which required workers to crawl through tunnels just 2ft wide.

Materials were another issue, hundreds of bolts needed replacing or solidifying with structural grout – at a time when there was an industry shortage. Moran also claimed that a member of the club’s board even visited depots to source the material.

There have been occasions when asbestos monitoring teams were called to the site, causing work to cease while the suspected materials were sent away for testing.

Moran added; “Teams of workers were doing 11 hour shifts, seven days a week, with as many as 15 operatives, heavily incentivised and on double pay.”

Indeed Blues’ Chief Financial Officer Mark Smith said the club had already spent five times the original quote. Moran maintained that finance has not been an issue during the project.

Moran said he is in the process of negotiating a time frame with the contractor, who will provide the club with options of either repairing and galvanising the affected beams, or replacing them. During this process consideration will also be given to areas of safe standing.

It is thought that if beam encasement is deemed to be an acceptable way forward there is a chance sections could be open by the end of July. A decision on that is expected to be made in the couple of weeks.
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Fox92

Fox92

Posted
Posted

Is it normal for stands to be built over old terraces!?

 

Sounds like they should knock that stand down and start again.

 

I take it Birmingham season ticket holders are still going into a ballot for home games.

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Corky

Corky

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Posted
14 hours ago, Fox92 said:

Is it normal for stands to be built over old terraces!?

 

Sounds like they should knock that stand down and start again.

 

I take it Birmingham season ticket holders are still going into a ballot for home games.

Yes, I think it was very common. I know some clubs like Norwich knocked down stands and rebuilt them but a lot just bolted seats onto terracing.

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