Everton fans offered behind-the-scenes insight into new stadium development
Everton's Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium is taking shape with plans for the ground to be ready for the 2024/25 season
Everton supporters have been offered an insight into the meticulous planning that goes into the development of the club's new Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium.
Everton first announced plans to build a new stadium on the banks of the River Mersey in 2017, as they prepare to move away from Goodison Park. The club started work on the development back in July 2021.
The club's new home on Liverpool's north docks is currently the largest single site development under construction in the UK. The skeleton of the stadium is now clearly visible as the steelwork on the North and South stands is erected.
And now Ben Townsley, Civil and Structures Project Leader at Laing O'Rourke, the club's construction partner in the project, has explained how the 'just-in-time' delivery programme - along with three years of meticulous planning - is paying dividends as the development continues to take shape.
"We have designed this stadium with assembly in mind, rather than construction, which is a more modern way of constructing buildings," Townsley explained.
"What that means is that we have a huge number of products, materials and components that we need to bring onto the site and assemble in order to construct the project properly.
"The term 'just-in-time' is used across the manufacturing industry and that basically involves getting all those products to the right place at the right time.
"With all of these different deliveries coming in through the gate, we can't end up with a backlog and wagons queuing up down the street, annoying our neighbours, so we try to allocate a two-hour window for every delivery.
"The aim is that those components then come through the gate and, within two hours, are offloaded, installed, and the wagon leaves.
"We can have 60-80 deliveries a day and that's the art of construction. Every component that we have to build and install has a different length of installation time, so we have to plan each delivery meticulously to attempt to make it fit within that finite window, or we would end up in chaos."
Townsley then added: "I've stood in the building in a 3D environment and we've been looking at the design of this stadium now for three years.
"When we first started looking at this project, we sat down and decided on which days each product would come into site.
"We plan very far in advance, but you can imagine that a lot can change in the subsequent three years and we have to deal with that, all the way up to the point of installation.
"The wind may start blowing, the temperature may change and all these things can affect some of the deliveries.
"So we plan our deliveries meticulously as far as we can, up to two weeks in advance, but then every hour of the day we monitor that, moving wagons around and speaking to some of the delivery drivers to delay them, or bring them forward slightly.
"We have a huge logistics team and it's all about team work. Without them pulling together and monitoring all those deliveries, we wouldn't be where we are today."
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