A Northern Ireland company has won a contract to design and supply specialised concrete products for the new 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium in London.

The £250,000 contract is to supply 500mm deep hollowcore slabs to main contractor Bryne Brothers, for use in the podium deck surrounding the massive stadium in a contract worth £250,000. The NI firm Acheson & Glover has also been contracted to supply 12 concrete lift caps designed to accommodate a Schindler lift system, as well as two concrete stairwells leading to the main stadium.

The unusual 500mm slabs and 250 mm slabs are specially designed to cope with cherrypicker loadings to allow access to the structure during the long construction period, due for completion in 2011. Sales manager for Acheson and Glover, Tim Butler, explained: “Acheson and Glover was the only company in the UK able to supply the 500mm deep hollowcore slabs which are specially designed to take extra-heavy loads - up to 25 kilo newtons per square metre. In addition to supplying 250 square metres of the 500mm slabs, we provided 4,250 square metres of 250mm slabs, all of which are capped to prevent the concrete going into the cores. All the structural designs were carried out by Acheson and Glover in-house engineers and the contract has been a great boost showcasing the quality of our work.”

Mr Butler added that the slabs were fitted with an Acheson and Glover fitting clamp to enable quick and easy installation, with no soffit damage normally associated with the traditional methods of placing hollowcore planks with chains, while the precast stairs above the podium were designed for easy removal at a later stage.