WEMBLEY STADIUM PROJECT

The Wembley Stadium Project: A Failure or Success



The Wembley Stadium Project: A Failure or Success

Introduction

The Wembley Stadium located on the former site of the stadium with the same name. The old Wembley Stadium was the most famous of all England and one of the best known around the world. The new Wembley Stadium is the local football team of England (Latham, 1994). After the demolition in the year 2002, the old Wembley and the design of architect Norman Foster opened the door to a new super stadium with a capacity of 100,000 spectators, which completed in the year 2007. The project cost was around 757 million pounds (1097 million Euros).

The concept

The Wembley Stadium concept was definitely ambitious, and the product stands now impressively. Even more breathe taking is the 133m arch which when lit up at night shinning gloriously, and can even be seen across London. Wembley has indeed become England's new icon of football. The client for the project was the Football Association (FA) working through its subsidiary the Wembley National Stadium Ltd (WNSL). The prime contractor was Multiplex Constructions with Mott MacDonald being the Lead Designers. The project used two project advisors; Tropus at the initial stages (1997-2001) and Capita Symonds (2001-2006). The primary steel contractor was Cleveland Bridge (Lewis, 2007).

White Horse Bridge

The stadium will be connected to the underground stations of Wembley Park and Wembley Central via “White Horse Bridge." Construction of the new Wembley is part of the Olympics for London 2012, which will host football matches both female and male and finals of both.

Problems during the Project

A litany of problems can be identified that bedeviled the construction of the Wembley Stadium mainly adversarial contracts, unreasonable risk allocation, cash-flow problems, design changes, poor performance, poor site management and litigations (Latham, 1994). These can be presented in details below:

Delays and indecisiveness even before the project begun

Plans for a new stadium beset with delays, management problems and increased costs since December 1996. The designs revealed in 1999 and the stadium should be completed in 2003, but the work itself started only in September 2002 due to many political and financial problems. The project can be ultimately rescheduled to complete in May 2006.

Design Problems

Multiplex argued that 'Mott MacDonald`s design for the Wembley steel work was not fit for the purpose and that the initial designs were not correct, constructible, coordinated and consistent. It further stated that 'Mott MacDonald's deficient design, failure to warn and/or take action shown in many thousands of individual acts or omissions' (Technology and Construction Court (TCC), 2006) (Kaming, 1997).

Scope Creep:

The initial scope was to accommodate athletics, rugby and football in the same stadium. This later became very controversial and resulted in the removal of athletics from the scheme in 1999, because of the technical and commercial challenges of accommodating the three sports within the same stadium. In December 2001, the scope further changed with the removal of a hotel from the project, the expansion of hospitality suites and considerable changes to the ...