Appointed by Sir Robert McAlpine, Lindner Prater delivered the extensive roofing package for the iconic No.1 Court at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon. Split across three phases, the work to No.1 Court has now been completed, in time for the start of the 2019 Wimbledon Championships.
In order to ensure the site would be safe for players, staff and visitors to the Wimbledon Championships that took place throughout the duration of the project, it was vital that Lindner Prater worked to a comprehensive project schedule. Lindner Prater’s project management team worked collaboratively with key supply chain partners and Sir Robert McAlpine, who assisted the team with creating a realistic and comprehensive schedule for each phase of the project. This ensured the project schedule could be adhered to by all those involved, and most importantly, the project could be delivered on time.
Lindner Prater also appointed an experienced external site engineer, throughout all three phases, who helped the team to keep the work progressing to schedule by dealing with any discrepancies and mitigating delays. This ultimately assisted with ensuring that construction could be completed in time for the 2019 Championships.
Phase 1 of the project concentrated on delivering the initial roofing packages, with Phase 2 dedicated to the outer wall façade of the new No.1 Court. Phase 3 was the busiest phase, with the completion of the inner bowl construction of BEMO roof, rainscreen, soffits and bullnoses, including the ‘finishing’ stages of all areas – making sure everything was complete and ready for use.
Leighton Morris, Project Manager at Lindner Prater explained that, “Phase 3 of the No.1 Court project was possibly the busiest and most intense of the three phases. Multiple trades were bought onto site to ensure the critical path activities and finishing touches were made to No.1 Court and that it would be ready for the start of the 2019 Championships. To achieve this, it was vital that everyone worked collaboratively and adhered to the project schedule – this was key to the smooth running of the site and assisted with effectively managing a ‘just in time’ approach to deliveries.
“Lindner Prater did encounter a number of challenges during Phase 3 of the build. Perhaps one of the most difficult to overcome was that there were no tower cranes in use towards the end of the build. This meant that those on site had to manually manoeuvre all materials – and the project schedules had to be adapted in order to accommodate this. Despite the difficulties that this posed, the team worked to ensure that schedules could be altered, and the project could still be delivered on time.”
Across the three phases, Lindner Prater worked closely with its supply chain partners to deliver the complex, bespoke roof of No.1 Court – designed to move to ensure that play could continue, regardless of weather conditions. Lindner Prater’s scope of works included the installation of 6500m2 of the bespoke BEMOFlex aluminium standing seam metal roofing system – designed specifically for this project. As well as a waterproof hot melt package and a 3000m2 cladding package to the outer wall, including Kingspan Evolution panels and Bailey rainscreen cladding, soffits and bullnoses to both the inner and outer bowl.
Work to Wimbledon No.1 Court has now been completed, ready to welcome those playing in the 2019 Wimbledon Championships.
Find out more about Lindner Prater’s scope of works at Wimbledon No.1 Court in this case study video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJf0qK1eqas