Grooved mechanical pipe jointing from Victaulic helped ensure that pipework met project requirements at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. HVP reports.

Constructing the modern multi-use stadium is never short of challenges; especially when you’re aiming to top the league of the UK’s most complex and innovative developments. The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London was one such example, demanding a flexible infrastructure and a first of its kind design, all to a world-class standard. Bound to tight deadlines and heavy costs, contractors dealt with perpetual pressure to deliver quickly and efficiently without compromising on quality.  

With over 20 years of experience in self-delivered pipework, public health, and insulation installations, delivered across a significant portfolio of clients, mechanical services company Price Building was the perfect fit for the project. It oversaw the installation of the district heating, all chilled mechanical pipe works, and the boosted cold-water service, which included over 20 pump sets overall. Led by Project Manager Harry Brown, and having been commissioned in October 2016 and started in December of the same year, the installation involved in excess of 170 team members. 

Victaulic’s grooved mechanical pipe joining technology ensured that the company was selected by Price Building as a project partner. It provided the fittings, 627 check and butterfly valves, and in excess of 10,000 couplings that were installed during the construction and helped to ensure the reliable and convenient installation and management of the cold, heated, and chilled water systems that travel around the stadium’s circumference, over six floors. Considering the scale of the team and the tight project deadlines, there was little room for delay. 

Victaulic’s grooved solutions were vital in ensuring efficiency. As a flame-free method, grooved mechanical pipe-joining removes the many health and safety concerns associated with welding. It eliminates the risk of fire and the need for special fire safety precautions during installation and maintenance. Overall, it helped to increase the installation speed and reduce the need for hot works, thus delivering greater onsite safety and reducing cost. 

It is vital to consider any engineering challenges and how they might be overcome at the project planning stage, and one standout challenge was the extremely tight space constraint. Price Building helped mitigate this issue by prefabricating and collaborating very early with the Tottenham team, into whom Price worked directly, to improve on-site efficiency. 

This was typified by Victaulic’s pump skid installation. The team installed 26 grooved skids, avoiding traditional welding techniques, and the only equipment necessary to keep it compact was a suction diffuser, which was needed to remove the long pipe spool that prevents water hammering in the pump. 

The Victaulic Style 731-D Suction Diffuser enables pipework to be connected closer to the pump at a 90° angle. Installing three grooved flexible couplings on each side of a pump also enabled noise and vibration attenuation and removed the need for costly, bulky flanged units and the use of rubber bellows. By eliminating long pipe runs, rubber bellows and flanged units, the Victaulic suction diffuser makes for a smaller mechanical room footprint and improves overall pump performance. 

Allowing workers to cut and groove at the stadium also facilitated easy installation and provided flexibility so Price Building could adapt to last minute planning changes. 

Victaulic’s StrengThin 100 System was widely installed on the stadium’s boosted cold water services due to its low weight and easy installation. The manufacturer says the product is the industry’s first grooved mechanical piping system that is specifically designed to perform up to 16bar on thin wall 304/316 stainless steel pipe. 

The product improved the efficiency of onsite material handling by taking away the challenges of welding thin wall stainless steel pipe, and thus reduced overall installation costs. The product range has since been used across a number of high-profile projects in London. 

To accelerate the process and ensure quality, Victaulic regularly provided Price Building’s staff with training sessions. This ensured they were up to date with the newest insights on the pipe installation process and proper, leak-tight system installation. This collaboration saved significant installation time by increasing efficiency among all the key partners.

The use of grooved solutions at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium means the entire installed piping system can be dismantled, remodelled, or interchanged. The design also ensures easy access for quick and cost-effective maintenance. As such, essential construction to update the stadium is more straightforward, a detail which was also evident throughout the construction process where Victaulic’s solutions facilitated flexibility and cost-efficiency – particularly in the context of redesigns – during a fast-paced, cost-sensitive, and time-sensitive project.