Anfield Road capacity expansion work

Article posted by Coliseum, October 7^th, 2022

Image: Liverpool FC

Its 12 months to the day that the Manager of the Premier League club Liverpool F.C. (UK), Jürgen Klopp, stuck a spade in the sand and launched the club’s residence – Anfield Road – expansion project.

‘Liverpool FC’ stated that since then, a staff of 750 have worked more than a quarter of a million hours onsite so far to make huge progress in the construction, which will bring 7,000 more supporters to Anfield, taking its capacity to 61,000.

The Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has played its home games at Anfield since its formation.

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The Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England (UK), which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892.

‘Liverpool FC’ further stated that it is officially on course to be completed for the start of the next season and has delivered many key milestones since ‘The Reds’ boss kickstarted the work on September 30^th, 2021.

Four months into the build, the innovative Y-shaped columns were erected to form a safety zone that allows safe operation of the stand and access for spectators on matchdays, while construction works continue.

Since the building work began, more than two million people have visited Anfield, including matchdays, concerts and stadium tours.

And in July this year another significant milestone was reached when the 300-tonne roof truss was carefully lifted into place.

Preparatory work for the truss started in May by building two huge steel towers, and then two 60 ft haunches were lifted into place ready to sit on either side of the truss.

It took 30 skilled engineers around 12 hours, during record-breaking temperatures, to install the truss using two 600-tonne crawler cranes to take the heavy lifting. When it was all aligned, the cranes held it in position until it could be bolted in place. The towers, haunches and truss are connected by a total of 25,000 bolts.

And recently, the Anfield Road hoardings have been decorated to feature past and present attacking stars.

Now, 12 months after work began, almost two-thirds of the main steel frame on the new Anfield Road Stand has been installed, and a third of the ground floor, level two concourses and terracing in the upper end have been finished.

When it is completed, a total of 3,700 tonnes of steel will have been used.

Put in Paul Cuttill, Vice-President of Stadium Operations at Liverpool F.C., “It’s been a very busy 12 months, and it’s impressive to look back at what has been achieved during the year. When the project started, we had the additional challenge of working with COVID restrictions still in place, and the stadium was still in use as a vaccination center. It’s exciting to see how it’s grown and seeing the plans brought to life. It’s been a huge achievement to carry on the build around a very busy football and concerts schedule. We’re in the final 10 months of the build and it will really start to come to life from this point forward.”

Alongside the build, 15 local school children have been chosen as young construction ambassadors for the project, receiving a detailed look at the development and how it’s progressing on a monthly basis. The scheme is run by Buckingham’s, the Principal Contractor, alongside the club’s Red Neighbours (Liverpool Football Club’s community program) team to introduce young people to careers in the construction industry.

This is the third major capital build project undertaken by the Liverpool Football Club in recent years, following the new Main Stand in 2016 and the opening of its state-of-the-art AXA Training Centre in November 2020.

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