Construction Specialties (CS) has supplied a range of expansion joint covers and entrance matting for a sports venue widely-regarded as the finest in Europe.

The new stadium, home to one of the Premier League leading teams, is located in north London. It is a stunning, 62,000-seat multipurpose facility that features the world’s first dividing, retractable football pitch.

Also designed to host American football, concerts and other high-profile events, the £1bn stadium, which officially opened in April 2019, is built on the site of the club’s former ground and offers the optimum spectator experience. At around 48m in height and occupying an area totalling 119,945m2, the stadium is the largest club ground in London, and second only to Manchester United’s Old Trafford in the Premier League.

With the football team relocated to a temporary ‘home’ at Wembley Stadium, construction on their future site began in 2015.  Due to the large footprint of the building, the stadium’s design  incorporated expansion joints to allow for the structural movement of the building. The CS APF Series Expansion Joint Covers (EJCs) were specified for joint locations throughout the concourse areas.  This heavy-duty, all-aluminium, recess-mounted floor joint cover system is highly-resistant to rolling loads, distortion and wear. It is available in five frame depths to suit a wide range of floor finishes and thicknesses.

To meet the functional project requirements, the CS APF-400/25 model was selected, as it can be fitted over a range of joint widths from 35-110mm and its 25mm deep-side frames were suitable for the application of polished concrete floors within the stadium. With its +40/-20mm of horizontal and up to ±15mm of vertical joint movement capability, the model can easily accommodate the specified movement range. The APFW-400/25 floor-to-wall option was selected for expansion joints running adjacent to the walls, and in areas where a recess-mounted solution couldn’t be fitted, the surface-mounted APF-400SM was installed. To simplify the installation and ensure the system’s full movement capability, CS also supplied a number of prefabricated 90-degree angle and odd angle transitions to suit project requirements.

A total of 450m of APF movement joint covers were installed throughout the stadium concourse. In areas where moisture ingress was a particular concern, CS Moisture Barriers were fitted underneath the covers.

The choice of efficient entrance matting was important to maintaining the stadium’s aesthetic, as it helps remove dirt and moisture from the soles of shoes and wheeled traffic to enhance floor safety and reduce cleaning frequency. This led to the specification of CS Pedigrid for the stadium’s VIP entrance atriums, media café and experience centre.

Part of CS’ quality Pedisystems entrance matting range, the 44mm-deep CS Pedigrid system is designed exclusively for recessed installations. It features removable aluminium grille sections that allow water, dirt and snow to fall between its heel-proof treads into a deep drainable matwell below, which significantly reduces cleaning and maintenance frequency. Dark grey, ‘Wrought Iron’ interior grade textile inserts and Black anodised finish to aluminium rails were selected for the project to complement the interior décor. In total, 40m² of CS Pedigrid was installed as part of the  project.

For the three entrances within the stadium’s ticket office,  the CS Pedimat Ultra entrance matting was selected.  With its 11mm slim-depth profile, and an excellent rolling load capability of 275kgs /wheel,  the system  fits in a matwell alongside floor tiles  to produce a flush floor finish. A total of 31m² Pedimat Ultra , featuring dark grey ‘Platinum’ exterior grade carpet inserts, was installed  to ensure effective dirt and moisture removal.

The stadium is seen as a first, spectacular step in the regeneration of a long-neglected area of north-east London, which will hopefully attract further business investment, as well as football fans. The selection of CS high performance systems will help ensure its long-term structural integrity is upheld, and reduce the cost of keeping its interior safe and clean.