SWECO chosen as structural engineer for new Swedbank Arena in Solna

SWECO has been selected by PEAB to act as structural engineer in construction of the new Swedbank Arena in Solna. The arena will be the largest in the Nordic region and will serve as Scandinavia’s premier football and entertainment venue.

One of SWECO’s greatest challenges is to engineer the steel structures that will bear up the weight of the retractable roof that extends over the pitch. Each half of the roof weighs a full 400 tonnes, and the engineers must also include the considerable extra load arising from snowfall.

“We are one of the structural engineering firms in Sweden with most experience of complex construction projects, and the arena definitely belong to that category,” says Sören Hed, Managing Director of SWECO BLOCO.

SWECO’s tasks are to prepare system documents for the entire arena, for the foundations and for the steel and concrete structures. The assignment is being performed on behalf of PEAB, which is general consultant to the end-client Ny Nationalarena i Solna AB. SWECO’s contract is worth nearly EUR 750,000.

“Nothing of this kind had ever been built in Sweden and we have taken part in a number of study visits arranged by Ny Nationalarena i Solna to broaden our expertise. We have particularly studied Amsterdam Arena, Allianz Arena in Munich, Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen and Wembley Stadium in London,” says Thomas Nordh, Assignment Manager at SWECO.

Swedbank Arena is scheduled for completion in 2012, at which time it will accommodate 50,000 spectators during football matches and 65,000 at concerts.