31/07/09

Heavy metal at Perth Arena

A major milestone in the construction of Perth Arena has been reached with assembly of the first of two ‘Megatrusses’ under way.

When complete, Megatruss 1 will be 10m high, 2.5m wide and 130m long. It will weigh 400 tonnes – about the weight of a fully-loaded and fuelled Boeing 747.

The steelwork for Perth Arena’s moving roof will be assembled at ground level using a 200-tonne capacity ‘crawler crane’, and then lifted into its final position 30m above the ground by a specialist jacking system.

These photographs show Megatruss 1 at around 40 percent completion, with remaining 60 percent to be completed throughout August.

Perth Arena will have a capacity for 12,000 seats for sporting events and 14,000 seats for concerts, and is due for completion in 2011.

The project being constructed by BGC will on completion become part of the portfolio of state owned venues run by Venues West (WA Sports Centre Trust). The project is being managed from Strategic Projects DTF by Nigel McCombe.