Glasgow 2014 has now been named one of the best and most successful games of our time but, when Glasgow aspired to obtain the Commonwealth games 2014, they were faced with a dilemma. Building a new stadium or using current facilities. It quickly became apparent that a suitable stadium to house such a major event with world class athletes from across the commonwealth did not exist.
The estimated cost to build a new stadium of this capacity and quality would be in excess of £750 million and expenditure of such a nature can be difficult to justify unless the legacy of such a facility is going to benefit the society that is funding it.
It was at this stage that TSG were approached to assess the feasibility of utilizing their 20kN/m2 high performance decking system to deliver a temporary stadium conversion. The HeavyDeck solution has been used extensively in the London Olympic Games and had huge successes in delivering the temporary equestrian arena at Greenwich Park (the largest Olympic venue outside of Stratford).
With TSG’s expertise in providing this type of facility it gave a high degree of confidence to the Glasgow organising committee and a series of tests were commissioned in 2012.
The contract was awarded to TSG towards the end of 2013 and the installation of a raised deck approximately 2m above the Hampden Park surface commenced in January 2014. In just under 6 weeks the first eight rows of seating was removed to make room for the 440m running track and TSG installed over 16,500m2 of HeavyDeck with more than 6,000 steel supporting legs equal to over 200 tons of steel work.
