Warner Park Sporting Complex
Raising the roof (literally) on a world-class sporting facility in St. Kitts
Location
Basseterre, St. Kitts
Beston's Role
Civil and Structural Design, Inspections
Beston's Team
Mark Francois, Jade Brown, Ralph Seecheran
Collaborators
Carillion (Contractors) / NLBA (Architects) / Cooper Kaufman (QS)
Considering that football and cricket consistently rank as two of the top and most beloved sports in the Caribbean, Beston Consulting was honoured to have been asked to work on the Warner Park Sporting Complex in St. Kitts.
Our job on this project was twofold. First, we were asked to enhance spectator experience by solving problems on the existing football ground, which had remained largely underutilised by Kittitians – in part due to a significant problem with lines of sight from the seating to the field. On the lower level, two-foot-in-diameter columns blocked spectators’ views, while correct angles in the construction of the upper level hadn’t been observed, which meant people sitting on the top tiers couldn’t see parts of the pitch closer to the structure. The roof was also rotting.
Beston’s solution was to remove the top tier and put up a new roof that was held up by a truss. We also cut the offending large pipes down to below the line of sight, and instead used cables and ran a pipe on top to keep the roof secure against potential hurricane-force winds. The seating that was removed on the upper level was used as open bleachers for additional seating on the side of the pitch. We also came up with cost-effective solutions on the civil and structural design and inspections of the eastern segment of the complex, which contains the cricket pitch, pavillion, media stand, private boxes, and seating for 4,000, which can be increased with temporary stands to 10,000 for major events.
Given that St. Kitts experiences a rainy season for half of the year, we paid particular attention to the drainage of the cricket grounds, carefully designing it to ensure playability after heavy rains; we also worked with an agricultural specialist to specify the sand to be used on the pitch.
In spite of the budgetary constraints on this project, Beston delivered on time: a great win for St. Kitts as the Warner Park Cricket Stadium was one of the hosts of the 2007 edition of the prestigious international Cricket World Cup tournament.