Market Know-how: Sport without Risk


Modern sports and sports-entertaining complexes are causing disputes in scientific and development circles. They argue about standards of safety in designing, constructing and operating sports premises of the new generation.

There are several points of view on the question of safety in Russian construction. For example, real controversy is flaring up over technologies used in the construction of premises, market participants blame the building rules and regulations, which for a long time have become outdated, or criticize as a whole the mechanisms of state regulation of the sector. Some people think that we should not be hasty in introducing new standards or technologies which we still don't know how will take root on Russian ground.

At the end of August at the United Technical Policy in the region of the complex security and antiterrorist protection of buildings and unique constructions," Nikolai Koshman, president of the Russian Association of Builders (previously head of Gosstroy) noted that the serious worry is brought about by the processes of design, research, construction, installation, adjustment and operation.

"There is not much construction going on, and still it often doesn't meet modern standards of safety and quality," says Koshman.

It concerns all constructed real estate premises. In Russia in the last few years the quantity of new sports complexes has increased. For example, at the end of the summer the government of the Moscow region announced that is going to give out budgetary credit to organizations and enterprises that build sports (and also socially significant) constructions. The total sum of the prospective credit will stand at 4.4 billion rubles with a deadline of return of December 15, 2008, says Interfax. At a session of the government of the Moscow region this resolution was passed.

When the state takes such wide measures, naturally there is the question of how it plans to supervise the safety of such a large number of building objects. The theme of safety, from both a technical point of view and from the point of view of the global problem of terrorism, worries Russia no less than European countries. The UK is considered the strictest in the development and execution of building regulations.

Sport centers not forever

Since the tragedy at Transvaal-park, which was constructed with a wide-span widely accepted design for large sports complexes projects, other accidents in several regions of Russia have have also happened.

In December 2005 in the Perm region, in Chusovy, the roof of the Delfin swimming pool fell in. According to local mass-media, ferro-concrete overlappings fell directly onto poeple. The collapsed area measured 100 sq.m. Rescuers referred to the poor quality support of the roof, in particular in the concrete used for its construction.

In 2006, the Saratov Public Prosecutor's Office demanded the closure of the town's Zvyozdny sports and fitness center because the building was in an emergency condition, as wrote Vedomosti. The same year near St. Petersburg in the leisure complex Okhta-park, a temporary canopy above an ice skating rink fell. According to the preliminary version of the Ministry of Emergency Measures, the accident was put down to the accumulation of snow on the roof, law enforcement bodies had suspicions that the project had not been approved, and a trial has now begun, informed Interfax.

In 2007 in the South Ural cities of Troitsk and Korkinsky the walls of a sports and fitness complex fell down. And in Chelyabinsk during a sports tournament in the Traktor ice rink, metal roofing beams began falling one after another on the stands. The collapsed are measured 50 sq.m. According to the version of the city's administration, the construction was in a poor condition, because it had not been repaired in 10 years. Funds for its repair were allocated just before the tragedy in 2006.

Such accidents as collapsing roofs and irremovable constructions of sports premises, take second place in terms of frequency after fires, according to the Ministry of Emergency Measures. As experience shows, snow loadings and severe weather conditions damage stadiums, swimming pools, aqua parks and other constructions in which wide-span designs are applied. A miscalculation in the design may mean the roof not being able to hold the snow.

In particular, after the case on Transvaal-park and considering everyday in Moscow more and more unique projects are appearing, the main architect of Moscow International Business center Moscow-city Vladimir Travush developed a proposal for the improvement of standards. These are new calculations for constructions which are exposed to snow and wind. These rules have been added to the present Moscow City Building Regulations (MGSN).

At a federal level, special Building laws and regulations for sports premises do not yet exist. However, there is a so-called appendix to the building laws and regulations dated 2.08.02-89 "Public buildings and constructions" which was developed in 1989 and engineers, designers and architects still consult this material.

Nuances of projects

In articles about building safety the press-service of Stilkon, which produces light building products, writes that incidents with collapsing roofs, leaks or prematurely requiring repair frequently arise from elementary mistakes. And the majority of them (80 per cent), unfortunately, are committed because of bad management of the construction process and an absence of co-ordination between the participants of the project.

There are general laws for all premises and mistakes, which are characteristic only for some types of sports constructions. It is possible to make general mistakes at the stage of designing, design miscalculations, writes Stilkon. That is miscalculating the loading on a building, from which, roughly speaking, it will collapse. A typical mistake of the designer is an incorrectly designed so-called «roofing pie." That is when space under the roof is insufficiently ventilated or when it is not even provided for in the project. The most unpleasant consequence of inexpertly designed ventilation is the accumulation of condensation. If wooden constructions are used for the roof they will become wet and spoiled, the company says.

There are some specific mistakes that designers make in the construction of stadiums, swimming pools, tennis courts and mountain-ski slopes.

Despite the seeming simplicity, the construction of plane constructions, such as tennis courts, proposes rather complex engineering decisions. According to Sportivniye Linii, who has been building sports premises for many years, when building tennis courts it is necessary to meet a number of conditions which are usually considered at the design stage. Wind loadings directly dictate where to have open-air and closed courts and which sports covering for it to choose. It is essentially important to consider the minimal and maximum temperatures of the region in which the court is to be built. A mistake in determining the minimum temperature will by all means lead to mistakes in the calculation of the sub base of the court (monolithic plate, thickness of asphalt layers, etc).

Stadiums are even more difficult and costly to construct. In choosing a site for a stadium such factors as the quality of air in the area of the stadium and the quantity of green plantings around are usually considered. It is important for a stadium to be located near transport highways. In the designing of the general plan of the stadium, great value is placed on its basic elements, the designers of the well known Khrushchev complex in Kiev, write.

In the Khrushchev stadium the main sports body with stands is located in at front, at the front entrances while sports and game equipment are further inside. The main body is the main architectural-design element of the stadium. It usually has a big axis from north to south. They think that exactly this location of the premises will be most favorable to both sportsmen and spectators in the stands. Such location of the axis is determined by the fact that competitions usually happen from 18:00-20:00 in the evening, and is connected with conditions of natural light at this time of the day (if the stadium is open-air).

Many large stadiums have two large bodies: one for holding competitions, another for training.

In the Khrushchev stadium the evacuation of stands is organized both through a top circular path, and through special lower evacuation paths. The structure of the stands is designed in the form of a smooth curve thanks to which the main sports body can be seen from any point of the stadium. The stands are considered as the most expensive element of stadiums.

Operation "Evacuation"

One of the most famous evacuations in the last two years was, perhaps, the rescue operation of spectators from the Superdome stadium in North America's New Orleans, which was visited by hurricane Katrina in 2005. In December last year the swift evacuation of about 70,000 spectators was necessary from the Santiago Bernabeo stadium in Spain's Madrid during a competition because of a bomb threat in the arena. After successfully carrying out the evacuation the secretary of Spain’s ministry of sports Jaime Lissavetsky said that the efficiency with which it was possible to remove people from the stands, may raise the chances of Madrid becoming the host for the Olympic Games 2012.

The gathering of large numbers of people on stands demands that have been filled at regular intervals to make sure that it was possible to quickly evacuate spectators in case of an emergency, Russian experts comment. A spectator, who has come to the stadium, should be able to find their sector and seat easily. Stands should be designed so that spectators in straight lines can quickly leave the stadium.

In the modern world various automated and "intelligent" systems have begun to be installed also in sports constructions. The most elementary that is required to equip any sport centers except for video observation and fire-fighting systems, are light sensor systems, which are also indispensable for fires. From such systems, in Russia, lit exit boards and arrow signs have become popular. Their installation is regulated by existing fire safety regulations in the federal Building rules and regulations.

Blinking strobes (strobe-flash) are still not widespread on the Russian market, but are installed in sport centers in Europe and the US. Such systems first of all are necessary as because of the high noise level the use of sound or speech is ineffective. During a fire when a premises (rooms) is filled with smoke, usual lit signs are inferior to strobe systems.

Disputes about regulations

Building regulations, be it the municipal or federal code of standards, are in each case the safety rules for designers, general contractors, developers and managing directors. Of course, it is rare that a developer admits to the government that he is constructing a building in which there are no high-grade standard systems and control over their performance. Every businessman more than likely will say that they operate in accordance with the federal buidling rules and regulations or the Moscow City Building Regulations, and do not break them. Indeed. But this is not enough, some experts consider.

Existing legislation does not define in detail the rules of the game for businesses, which would provide safety in the building process, says Yury Eliseyev, president of the All-Russian association of Metal builders. In Koshman's opinion, technical regulations should establish the rights, duties and the responsibility of all participants of the project: researchers, designers, manufacturers of building materials, customers-builders, contractors, the people carrying out approval of buildings, owners and users of the buildings, service maintainers, representatives of state control bodies, etc. And the most important thing in technical regulations there should be requirements for a construction's characterizes, and for the designing and construction process.

If you look deeply into the federal building rules and regulations (or in a new fashion - national standards) it is not possible to find separate chapters in them, to devoted themes or other modern technologies (for example, experts consider the regulations on metal constructions and designs incomplete even though the majority of sports premises all over the world are built using them). Separate legal codes, they say, do not exist for the designing and construction of sports premises. Although a decision about how many technical regulations there should be in the national standards - if all of them will be created - and for what segments of the market, should be taken by an advisory council, Yeliseyev says. "Maybe, for the construction of sports premises it will be enough to simply modify universal regulations," he says.

For private businesses, the improvement of standards and technological processes which can make work on projects faster and more effective, theoretically should be favorable. More than half the stadiums, pools and aqua parks in Moscow under construction are being built with the funds of private investors or belong to commercial organizations (all large swimming pools in the capital).

Sports constructions correspond to civil constructions if we classify them using the system that decades ago was approved by the USSR. There is a second category – objects of industrial construction. The safety foundations for civil construction premises, at first sight, are simple: the presence of a fulfilled legislative and regulative-legal base, rigid control over the activity of market players by self-regulating organizations, introduction of the institute of insuring building under construction. But to work on all these regulations at a legislative level and to create a new code, financing is necessary and experts, ready to work on the development of such regulations are necessary.

By no means do all market participants think that it is necessary to change something. In particular, in the sphere of constructing sports premises in the capital, in the opinion of Nikolai Melnik, deputy chief of capital construction management at Moskomsport , the building regulations and laws of 2000 are quite enough to provide safety. It is enough that during the process of realizing each project architectural supervision is carried out. In the capital there are also special regulations in operating a premises.

Changing technologies

Many years ago, trying to eliminate the technical barriers in trade, the EU developed the European code of practical rules, or the Eurocode, in the field of designing and constructing buildings and constructions. In Russia many players recognize the quality of European standards and there are adherents of the idea to translate the Eurocode into Russian and create on its basis a so-called national appendix adapted for Russian activities. Twenty eight countries have already switched to the Eurocode.

But in the creation of even one national standard on the Eurocode system – for example, the code of rules on designing concrete constructions – could require 10 million rubles, according to All-Russian association of Metal builders. In Russia, 1 million rubles is spent annually on developing one standard only.

Sergey Tyurin, assistant to the general director of MosCityGroup thinks that nothing needs to be drastically change in the laws on designing and construction, and technology. "Regulations in operation now are based on enormous experience which has been gained by previous generations, and it is from this base that we need to develop new laws. During Soviet times very high quality building laws and regulations were developed. A work of art even now, was constructed, considers the Moscow stadium Lokomotiv. On this stadium, technology on the building of premises from metal constructions that Russia started to widely use only at the beginning of 2000 was tested, he says.

In Russia and Moscow metal designs in various sport construction projects only began to be widely used in the last 10 years. In comparison with concrete, ferro-concrete and wood, metal is considered a more universal and reliable material. In Moscow, for example, sports constructions of a regional scale have begun to be constructed from simple metal designs. They allow for the construction of buildings of any geometrical form, any number of storeys. The technology of quick rise buildings reduces the length of time of construction, reduces the volume of investments in the project, and such buildings are considered fire-resistant and ecologically clean.

According to the research of the All-Russian association of Metal builders, steel skeletons have noticeably more advantages in comparison with concrete or wooden ones, which are sometimes used in the construction of sports premises. Metal constructions are more fire resistant, seismo-stable and more durable. So, steel structures from zinc covered steel are protected from corrosion during the whole service life of the building. 275 grams of zinc per sq.m is enough for a construction to be operating for 100 years.

With wooden constructions panel board and frame walls usually have 20-30 years of service, and timber have 30-40 years. Brick or ferro-concrete walls last about 50 years. The price of ferro-concrete constructions is growing quicker than for steel shell in Russia. Now the cost of a steel shell with a heater and covering, including the cost of construction works, is $173 per 1 sq.m.

There is also European research on the ecological cleanliness of projects made from metal constructions in comparison with buildings made from ferro-concrete. According to experts of the group of the companies Stalniye Konstruktsii, inorganic and chemically passive metals and other accompanying materials (heater, internal and external wall covering, furnishings) are utilized 100 per cent. Such constructions do not absorb and do not emit chemicals in the air. In addition metal gives greater opportunities to architects.

But in Moscow you still don't come across such grandiose both from the point of view of volumes, and from the point of view of the architecture of sports constructions built from metal shells. For example, such stadiums as St James Park with 36,600 spectator capacity or Emirates with 60,000 in the UK.

According to Melnik, nevertheless, last year in the capital developers of stadiums and sport centers switched to using metal constructions for the skeletons of their buildings. For example, the ice rink on Khodynskoye pole, built by Monarkh, Tsentr and Moskapstroem, is an example of a complex premises with the use of metal.

The Moscow department of economic policy and development invested in the ice rink on Khodynskoye pole. The rink became the arena for the world hockey championship in 2007. Now it can be used for competitions of 20 kinds of sports and if necessary can be used for holding shows, festivals and concerts. Its arena measures 1,800 sq.m (60 х 30), and the stands accommodate 14,000 spectators. The underground parking accommodates 750 cars, and the outdoor parking 1,500. The designer of the rink was Mosproekt-4. As Anatoly Voronin, chairman of Moskomekspertizy said at the press conference to mark the opening of the rink, all calculations are executed with a safety factor and the designers of the project were criticized for even the smallest excessive use of metal.

Besides federal level sports premises, such as the ice rink on Khodynskoye Pole, in Moscow there are also gradually becoming more unusual sports-entertainment complexes. One of them is the aqua park measuring 78,000 sq.m in Moscow-City. It has caused a headache to its developer and investor MosCityGroup from the process of approving the project. Water entertainment will be constructed in a complex with a pool and other kinds of rest: according to the most recent version, approved by the social council at the mayor's office, the center will include wellness and fitness clubs, saunas, restaurants and cafes. The cost of the project is estimated at $120-150 million, Tyurin says.

According to Tyurin, the technology used in the construction of the premises will be a combination of monolithic ferro-concrete, and metal constructions, which will most likely be produced by a German manufacturer. During work on the project there were long discussions on what to use for the roof of the building, and metal has been decided upon. However, MosCityGroup refused to use the production of Russian factories.

Tyurin explains that for example, factories in the Urals, even if they are ready to produce constructions with the required parameters and characteristics, they will only do it to order which will be more expensive for any investor, than to bring materials from Europe because they are much heavier than European ones. Some developers cooperate with European suppliers and manufacturers because of the economic factors of the projects. And, of course, the quality of German steel surpasses the quality of Russian steel, Tyurin says.