IN a year in which some of the most outstanding entries since the inception of the Steel Awards were received, prompting Southern African Institute of Steel Construction (SAISC) executive director Hennie de Clercq to say “perhaps the best ever”, Cape Town Stadium has been named the overall winner of Steel Awards 2010.

The SAISC hosted the Steel Awards, held concurrently in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town last month. The Aveng Group was the main sponsor.

The judges said that the Cape Town Stadium was a magnificent structure with some of the best steelwork they have ever seen.

“The execution of the steelwork, some of it fabricated locally and some of it imported, is testimony to the genius of the project team, which comprised engineers, fabricators and contractors from all round the globe in a collaboration of which they and the whole country can be proud.”

They added that this project has been an eye-opener to the excellence that can be achieved in the industry with lasting benefits for local industry generally.

“The transfer of knowledge and skills will play a significant role in future projects,” they said.

“In particular, the use of lighter steel structures - slender members and cable structures - will increasingly manifest itself in our industry.”

Cape Town Stadium’s unique location and curved and undulating silhouette, gives the stadium the look of a sculptural object making it one of the most elegant and beautiful stadiums in the country, if not the world, according to the judges.

Steel was the only feasible material for the construction of the roof elements.

“The tolerances that had to be achieved within the steelwork to support the rooftop glass panes would have been impossible with any other material.”

To achieve the ambitious free-span requirements of 58m, which includes a cantilever section of 14m, a lightweight suspended steel structure was adopted.

Covering an astounding 37 000sq m and weighing a total of 4 500 tons, it is the largest glass-covered roof in Southern Africa.

One of South Africa’s leading steelwork contractors, DSE, noted that the stadium was a complex structural project and was certainly ‘one of the most intricate steelwork structures ever produced in their workshop’.

The judges said that a project of this magnitude has extreme architectural and engineering demands all of which were met in the most professional manner.

“The Cape Town Stadium is an outstanding work which showed both this country and the world that South Africa has the skills to match and even surpass the best in the world. It is truly deserving of the ‘overall winner’ award,” they concluded.