Engineering Projects: Odyssey Project, Belfast

What is it? The Odyssey is Northern Ireland's Landmark Millennium Project. It is a large sporting, educational and entertainment facility with a total building area of 55,000m². It has an extensive range of facilities including:

• A 10,000-seater indoor arena of international standard.
• An interactive "Discovery Centre" with themes relating to the technology and scientific base of Northern Ireland.
• An IMAX and 12 screen multiplex cinema
• leisure facilities
• restaurants and bars

About the structures: The arena is home to the Belfast Giants ice hockey team, but can be used as a concert hall or exhibition space when the ice floor is not needed. It also has an international standard 200m hydraulic running track.

The cinemas, restaurants and bars are housed in the Odyssey Pavilion under a large translucent roof, which is a tented structure (fabricated by the same company who provided the Millennium Dome).

Within the Discovery Centre, the structural elements are exposed, many themselves becoming exhibits. Inside the atrium area, there are steel stairways projecting out from the floor slabs. One hangs from the roof, while another is propped from the ground floor slab below. An 11 metre long glass bridge spans across the atrium, 12 metres above the floor.

A 45 metre high, steel mast dominates the exterior of the building. It is fixed to the main building at each floor level and extends 25 metres above the roof. However, it is still propped part way up this extension to stop it deflecting too much in the wind.

Some construction facts: Construction of the project took two years to complete, and involved:

• 1,200 construction workers
• 1,300 tonnes of structural steel
• 2,524 piles (columns extending down into the ground) to support the structure, which if laid end to end would extend 40 miles.
• 23,000 cubic metres of concrete
• 5,000 tonnes of steel bars to reinforce the concrete
• 1 million square feet of brickwork and blockwork