Foxboro, MA
Gillette Stadium
Scope/Solutions
Gillette Stadium serves as home to the New England Patriots and the New England Revolution. The stadium has 68,000 seats on three decks, eighty luxury suites, and over 6,000 club seats. SGH consulted on several problems encountered during the final stages of construction.
Some of the items SGH consulted on include the following:
- Cracking and deterioration of structural precast concrete stadia units and their supporting beams
- Ponding throughout the stadium
- Strength of the curtain wall of the luxury suites to resist wind loads
- Leakage from expansion joints
- Cracked glass handrails
- Apparent mold growth in the curtain wall surrounding the concourse
- Valve joint failure in the pump-assisted high zone grey water system
Highlights of SGH’s work include the following:
- Surveyed structural stadia units using an onsite data capture system that helped streamline the investigation and report the extent of the problems to the owner
- Performed a petrographic examination of concrete in our laboratory to determine the causes of cracking and deterioration
- Evaluated construction tolerances to determine the cause of ponding on the stadia units
- Constructed a scale stadium model for a wind tunnel study to determine wind loads on luxury suite walls for comparison with design assumptions
- Monitored and evaluated grey water system operation, simulated testing of component failure, coordinated hydrodynamic analysis of the system, and determined the probable cause of the failure
Model used for wind tunnel testing
Extracted pipe samples
Concrete bond testing
A C-5 Galaxy performs a flyby over Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Mass., Nov. 11, 2012, just before kickoff, to an estimated crowd of more than 68,000. The C-5 is assigned to Westover Air Reserve Base, Mass. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Kelly Galloway)
1 of 7
Project Summary
2003
Completion Date
Solutions
Failure Investigation
Services
Building Enclosures | Advanced Analysis | Structures | Applied Science & Research
Markets
Culture & Entertainment
Client(s)
Monahan & Associates PC | Goodwin Procter LLP
Specialized Capabilities
Repair & Strengthening | Roofing & Waterproofing | Failure Analysis | Materials Science | Microscopy
Key team members
Additional Projects
Northeast
Boston Society of Architects, Catenary Compression: The Tensile Vault at Bigger than a Breadbox, Smaller than a Building
The 2015 exhibition, Bigger than a Breadbox, Smaller than a Building, featured large-scale installations in the Boston Society of Architects (BSA) Space. SGH provided structural engineering and materials science services for the three main installations.
Northeast
Harvard University, The Grove, We All
In November 2016, the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) announced an inaugural design-build competition for an installation in The Grove at the intersection of North Harvard Street and Western Avenue. SGH consulted on the structural design for the project.