The digital build: Erecting Everton FC’s new stadium (2025)

The 4D model for the stand during week 85. The stadium has effectively been built digitally, then in real life. Image credit | Bentley Systems

Football stadiums bear witness to spectacle and, often, pure drama. For Everton last season, there was plenty of both. With the club in the process of building a new 52,888-seat stadium on Liverpool’s Bramley-Moore Dock, they had a total of eight points deducted for breaching financial rules. Itlooked at one stage that this new ground would not be visited by Premier League clubs any time soon until a much-needed end-of-season surge saw the Toffees narrowly retain their top-flight status.

Building stadiums can be equally precarious, says SimonBeards, the principal planner for the new £555m venue, which is being constructed by engineers Laing O’Rourke. He points to Tottenham Hotspur’s show-stopping stadium that started with an early budget of £250m, but was completed three years later in 2019 for an eye-watering £1.2bn amid delays and controversies. Then there’s the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff (now known as Principality Stadium), which was delivered on time but effectively bankrupted contractor Laing. It was purchased for £1 by O’Rourke to become Laing O’Rourke.

The Everton Stadium project has so far managed to avoid such controversies. Construction has now entered its home straight and is both on schedule and within budget, with nearly 12,000 construction staff required during thebuild.

Everton’s East Stand during week 85 of the build. The 4D model allowed the project delivery team to visualise the construction sequence. Image credit | Bentley Systems

Collaborative digital environment

Beards in part credits the project’s successful progress to the use of 4D modelling. Three-dimensional building informationmodelling (3D BIM) shows how a building looks or will look, while 4D modelling adds in time, such as construction and schedule-related information, to visualise how the building will be erected over certain periods.Everything is shared in a common data environment such as the cloud.

With 4D modelling, it is usually only used as a bidding tool to essentially ‘wow’ the client and is then forgotten about, says Beards. However, on the Everton project the 4D model, almost by accident, became integral to the entire construction process.

“Someone said, ‘Why don’t we put it in the immersive room?’ So we did and I was thinking, ‘Oh crikey, I don’t want people to see my mistakes,’” says Beards. “Then the penny dropped – that’s the whole point. If you see your mistakes digitally, you’ve got an opportunity to correct them.” From then on, the stadium was effectively built twice: digitally first then in real life.

The immersive room, built by the company Immersive, was originally created for staff training and induction. It’s not VR but several projectors display the Gantt chart – the original project planning tool – on to one wall and the 4D model on to another. The Gantt chart live programme is synced to the 4D model so the team can see images and sequences of work that have taken place or are about to happen. Drones are used to collect regular footage so the construction progress can be married up to the digital image to ensure it is up to date.

The building programme has around 30,000 activities, which can be difficult to track and monitor, but the resulting 4D model allows the project delivery team to visualise the construction sequence and improve communication overall.

“It became the next generation ofmeetings,” says Beards. “It was no longer the planner’s programme, but engaged the whole team.”

But the main benefit is logistical. Using the model, the team can assess potential risks and clashes in the construction programme, as well as see opportunities they might have missed using the Gantt chart alone. This is particularly advantageous given the project has a high use of cranes. This is, in part, due to its design for manufacture and assembly agenda, which has a target for 70% or more of products – such as pre-cast concrete terrace units and external brickwork panels – to be built in a factory environment to reduce waste. These are then lifted into the building. Reduced access due to the waterfront location on the River Mersey also adds further logistical challenges.

“We’re building on the side of a dock with a lot of wind exposure. Depending on the weather things will go slower or quicker, which impacts crane timings,” explains Beards. “If you get the crane and logistical strategy right, the wheels keep turning. The worst thing is falling behind on the Friday and the following week a crane turns up, and the old crane is still costing thousands.”

In the 4D model, cranes could be seen getting on top of each other so the team were able to adjust the schedule to avoid potential clashes.

“If I could list how many incidents and situations where we’ve had that sort ofissue and we’ve prevented it, it would be as long as my arm,” says Beards.

Sub-contractors such as Severfield, which provided the steel superstructure, also have access to the 4D platform and immersive meetings. They can submit their programme of work directly into the software so it can automatically be built into the wider plan.

“That single source of truth – having one programme everyone can view – keeps the project dynamic,” says Beards.

Construction of the newstadium has now entered its home straight and is both on schedule and within budget

Next generation tool

The Everton Stadium project has garnered international attention, receiving visits from those interested in adopting its approach, including from Australia, the Middle East, Japan and across the UK. Beards is also tutoring others on how to use the technology, saying he can train anyone in 15 minutes.

“The question everyone asks is how much the cost would be without the 4D model,” he says. “But it’s an impossible question to answer because it’s real-life engineering where the impact didn’t happen.”

The 4D model Laing O’Rourke is using is part of Bentley Systems’ infrastructure construction management software SYNCHRO. It was acquired by the company initially for use on London’s Crossrail project. Lendlease also used it on the construction of Bentley Systems’ new UK head office, a 50-storey tower on the corner of Bishopsgate and Leadenhall Street in London, which was unveiled in May. Known as 8 Bishopsgate, the block comprises 52,900m2 of office space. It was built digitally first using the programme, which Lendlease says helped the team reduce the construction time by six weeks.

Laing O’Rourke has said it will use the technology to deliver complex construction projects in the future and it is currently looking at how to use it for the fit-out stage to monitor walls going up and flooring going down. But there are challenges. File sizes can be huge – the current 4D is 500-600MB – and the fit-out model will require larger files and better hardware. Beards is working with Bentley Systems to improve on the software suite further. In addition, depending on the type of project, data sent from different departments may need to be standardised.

“We are trying to learn what’s gonewell in this project because stadiums arehistorically difficult to build, andcertainly on the side of a dock,” saysBeards. “But I have seen the value this technology has brought really quickly and I hope this will become a tool used by the next generation and essentially the new norm.”

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