Project Profile: Housing the beautiful game in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia

Project: Soccer Stadium

Location: Krasnoïarsk, Siberia

Krasnoïarsk is the third largest city in Siberia. It is east of Kazakhstan and north of Mongolia, in the south-central area of the region nestled on the banks of the Yenisei River that flows northward to the Arctic Ocean. Like many Russian cities its inhabitants love the “beautiful game” of soccer. And, like all soccer fans, they want their team to be the best. And that takes practice. Lots of it. Big problem: from November to March there was no facility for training on a full-size field.

Enter the Russian Ministry of Sport and a general contractor for building construction, Mezhregionalnaya Torgovaya Assotsiatsia Ltd., (MTA). As with their newer hockey arenas, the Russians wanted an international-size indoor soccer stadium with the best sight-lines possible, without interference from support columns. This involved two significant challenges, building with unprecedented clear spans, and finding a qualified supplier, given no Russian suppliers were capable. 

Behlen Industries LP, headquartered in Brandon, Manitoba, is Canada’s largest manufacturer of steel building systems. After submitting a successful bid for the new stadium, Behlen has demonstrated once again its experience and expertise in taking over large and unusual international projects. It’s also important to say that since the project started, Behlen has been dealing with MTA who erected this massive structure in Siberia. 

Behlen’s point man was Project Manager Andreas Riffel, based in Brandon, who speaks fluent Russian. He says, “The most challenging aspects of the project related to its size. Firstly we’d never fabricated a frameless convex-style building that big, with such large clear spans and secondly because of that we had to gain the trust of local authorities that it was even possible. It was unique for us, imagine for someone who never saw a structure like that, it’s difficult to believe it’s going to work!” 

And that brings up the issue of testing and ArcelorMittal Dofasco (AMD)’s contribution besides supplying the steel itself. AMD conducted diaphragm shear testing on 3.05m to 7.62m (10 ft. to 25 ft.) panels connected as they would be in the field, loading them, measuring the deflection and then crunching the numbers to determine the shear capacity of the building. As Riffel points out, “The test results gave us the confidence that the stadium could be built and it would be able to withstand local snow loads, and we reassured local authorities accordingly.” 

The stadium’s overall size is 120m long x 115m wide (395 ft. x 377 ft.) It comprises a 4-storey admin. and commercial area with a 12m x 35m (40 ft. x 115 ft.) footprint. The soccer arena is 120m x 80m (394 ft. x 262 ft.) with a clear ceiling height of 23m (75.5 ft.) Z275(G90) galvanized steel is used throughout for sidewall panels 1.925mm (0.0758”), end wall panels 1.31mm (0.0516”), roof 2.38mm (0.0937”) and the ceiling is a mix of 2.38mm (0.0937”) and 1.93mm (0.0758”). The largest roof and ceiling panels had a rolled dimension of approximately 1m x 10m (3.28 ft. x 32.8 ft.). 

The project took Behlen a year-and-a-half from first negotiations to final delivery. That becomes impressive when you know the actual fabrication and shipment occurred within a 4-month period and required 63 shipping containers. Overall completion was scheduled for August 2014. At the time of going to press Behlen had obtained a further five contracts for steel buildings in Russia and opened an office in Moscow.

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION TEAM 

OWNER: Soccer Club “Enisey” 

ARCHITECT: PSO MIR Ltd. 

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: Urban Engineering 

GENERAL CONTRACTOR: PSK Premium Ltd. 

BUILDING ERECTOR: Stroikon Ltd. 

BUILDING SUPPLIER: BEHLEN Industries LP 

PHOTOGRAPHER: Andreas Riffel

Click to download Case Study 89-15: Housing the beautiful game in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia