Woerthersee Stadium Klagenfurt

A new stadium was built for the European Football Championship in 2008 at the site of the old Klagenfurt stadium, which had become a little long on the tooth. The new structure has a capacity of 32,000 and is located in the immediate proximity of Wörthersee and the city centre. Additionally, a spacious sport park offering manifold possibilities was installed at the site.

Due to its soil conditions, the entire stadium area was founded on shallow foundations supported on stone columns. The vibrating tamper sealing method by which the surface underneath the foundations is grouted with some 60,000 running metres of stone columns was used in the process.

A giant, some 34-m-tall steel structure supports the transparent roof which protects all seats from rain and sunlight. The two spectator tiers are divided by a distribution level. The lower tier’s superstructure and stairwell construction were made from in-situ concrete and pre-cast concrete elements. Hollow-core slabs complete the construction and serve as a distribution level some 9m in height. 42 rafters support the stadium’s superstructure. The attached upper tier with its roof sickle protruding some 45m inward consists of a 34-m-tall steel truss construction. This is supposed to enable the structure to be dismantled later on. The front roof panel covering the stands is made from transparent plastic plates, the sickle’s rear element is executed as a metal cover.

The western building which is integrated into the stadium houses the players’ dressing rooms, offices, restaurants, media rooms and the VIP area and was built in three concreting phases using in-situ concrete and pre-cast concrete elements (triple walls, pre-fabricated ceilings and hollow-core slabs). The VIP Box was attached to the third upper floor, protrudes by almost 8m and runs the entire length of 100m. In-situ concrete downstand and upstand beams with hollow-core slabs and in-situ concrete supports form a spacious, detached box. The pitch roof finally consists of steel truss construction with a transparent plastic cover.