Sheffield-based SCX Special Projects has completed the first year of a three-year project to construct a retractable roof for No.1 Court at the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC).
The folding roof over No.1 Court is part of a redevelopment designed to increase seating capacity and transform the grass court arena into one capable of guaranteed play in all weather conditions.
The mechanical handling solutions specialist, part of the SCX Group, was awarded the contract after successfully designing, manufacturing and installing a similar retractable roof over Wimbledon’s Centre Court in 2009.
SCX Group managing director, Simon Eastwood, said: “We are very proud to have built the original retractable roof on Centre Court, and subsequently to have been chosen by the AELTC to work on No.1 Court.”
The new roof has already used more than 3,500 tonnes of steel, the equivalent of 295 buses or six Airbus aeroplanes.
SCX Special Projects has again devised a concertina design using transparent Gore Tenara (a type of Gore-Tex fabric), which is stretched between 11 steel trusses, with two main sections that meet in the middle. It can be deployed or retracted in around eight minutes.
SCX is responsible for the design and supply of all the mechanical and electrical equipment for the roof, and for the construction of the components that make up the moving sections of the roof.
In a comment to The Times, Philip Brook, chairman of the AELTC, said: “It’s a very complicated project. It took three years to put a roof on Centre Court and it’s much the same this time around.”
Work is on schedule for completion in time for the 2019 tournament.
The 2017 Championships will run from 3-16 July.
No.1 Court was unaffected by last week’s fire at the Club.