TUBULAR CATEGORY WINNER
Siesa Ramabodu Stadium
Scooping the award for best Tubular Steel structure was Siesa
Ramabodu Stadium in Bloemfontein. Home to Bloemfontein
Celtic, the Stadium was renovated to better serve the community
by increasing its capacity, comfort and quality as a sporting venue.
When interviewed regarding this project, the first aspect
architect, Aadil Bham, commented on the professional and
excellent manner in which the team collaborated while executing
this project. “All contractors and sub-contractors really came
together well to give us a good final product.” says Bham. The
project came about as a result of a collaboration between the
Mangaung Municipality and the Free State Department of Sports,
Arts, Culture and Recreation and the Department of Public Works.
They identified this site as a priority for development within the
municipality and developed a wishlist in terms of what they
wanted to achieve. Their main priority was the upliftment of the
sports offering from this facility, bringing it to a contemporary
standard. They also wanted to create a facility that provided a
quality experience to the community, with soccer being such a
loved sport in the area.
“The Stadium is a well-balanced and aesthetically pleasing
structure. One of the really clever aspects is that it uses a double
chord with a compression member where the loads are high
and converges into one chord where the loads are low. Another
interesting aspect is the use of circular hollow section girts
to the fascias, which eliminates the use of a complicated sag
system.” – Franco Mordini, ASTPM (The Association of Steel
Tube and Pipe Manufacturers)
The structural frame of Seisa Ramabodu Stadium consists
of main raker beams, frames or columns which are founded on
solid rock, with seating panels and a box gutter frame bolted to
a structure cast into the concrete, carrying a cantilevered roof.
The cantilevered roof spans about 30m and consists of triangular
trusses, constructed from circular hollow sections. The trusses
vary from 2m at the back to 500mm at the nose cone, with a
curved bottom member. It has IPE profile purlins that span 9m
(more or less the span of the raker beams) with curved cladding
Steel Awards
rails fixed to the back of the concrete frames, which carry the
circular purlins that support the curved cladding.
The main challenge was casting in the structure that carries
the gutter boxes at the back. This resulted in variable items, and
the need to align trusses in order to create an even visual line,
which contributes to the aesthetic of the stadium. Between the
engineer, contractor and architect, a 3-member connection was
designed to solve this challenge. All aspects were surveyed, and
each section had its own cleat made to align the trusses and
achieve an even visual alignment.
Client / Owner / Developer: Mangaung Municipality
Architect: Urban Edge Architects
Structural Engineer: AECOM
Project Manager & Quantity Surveyor:
WBHO
Structural Steel Detailer / Detailing Company:
Construct Steelwork Detailing
Cladding Supplier: Tate & Nicholson
Steelwork Contractor and Nominator: BRD Construction
Main Contractor: WBHO
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