REEL rises to Reliant Stadium challenge

Specialist rope access teams are playing a key part in repairing a massive American football stadium damaged by Hurricane Ike.

The retractable roof of the Reliant Stadium – home of NFL side the Houston Texans – suffered serious damage as the city was battered by 120mph winds for six hours on 13 September last year.

Soon after the hurricane abated, the stadium’s owners contacted the Houston offices of Aberdeeen-based international inspection and testing company Reel Group for help in assessing the extent of the damage.

Part of the Scottish-based Global Energy Group, Reel - whose usual customers are from the offshore oil and gas industry - had a team of rope access specialists on the 265 ft high stadium roof that day to begin the inspection.

The abseiling teams have since been working with the roof’s manufacturers Birdair Inc, removing and replacing the damaged sections of the four acre structure. The 35-strong squad of rope access specialists from the US and UK are now close to completing the complex project.

Reel’s managing director Russell Ritchie said: “Like very many other businesses in Houston we were affected by Ike and lost the power and phone lines at our offices for a time. But we got up and running again very quickly and were extremely busy assisting our clients with offshore installations off the Texas coast, who had also been hit by the hurricane, when the call came in from the Reliant Stadium.

“It is certainly one of the most unusual requests we have had for assistance and it has turned out to be a very significant project. Despite the fact that around 60 per cent of our US staff were mobilised offshore in the days after the hurricane, we were able to rapidly deploy the expertise and resources needed for it.

“Reliant Stadium is a key venue in Houston, not just for football, but all kinds of other large scale entertainment, and as a company with a strong base in the city, we are absolutely delighted to be playing our part in restoring it to its former glory.”

The 71,500 capacity Reliant Stadium staged the Super Bowl, the showpiece of the American football season, in 2004. It is also the venue for a host of other events, from rodeos to rock concerts.

The retractable high-strength fabric roof was the first of its kind in the NFL. The structure, constructed using 403,800 square feet of PTFE architectural fabric membrane and two 967 foot long steel supertrusses supported by four concrete columns, can open or close in under 10-minutes. The translucent nature of the fabric allows a natural grass pitch to grow below.  

In addition to its Houston operation, Reel Group, has bases in a number of key international locations in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.

You can see the project in action in the Case Studies section