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Nelson Mandela Bay Multipurpose Stadium (Port Elizabeth, South Africa) completed

Thursday 25 June 2009 - Royal BAM Group nv, Bunnik

Gouda, Netherlands, 24 June 2009 - The construction of the Nelson Mandela Bay Multipurpose Stadium in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, has been completed on schedule and has been praised as one of the fastest-built in the world. The stadium, built by a consortium of BAM International and Grinaker-LTA, was the first of the five new 2010 Soccer World Cup stadiums to be opened by FIFA. The stadium was completed with an excellent track record of zero serious injuries or fatalities. Last week an inaugural match was played between the British and Irish Lions and the Southern Kings.

Nelson Mandela Bay Multipurpose Stadium Soccer City

The 48,600 seater stadium will host several matches during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, including a third and fourth place play off and a quarter final. Pièce de résistance is the grandstand roof, made of 36 curved truss beams covered with aluminium panels and with membrane fabric between the beams. The 3D beams were produced in Kuwait and were assembled on site. Weighing nearly sixty tonnes, the beams are 55 metres long, 25 metres high and range in width from one to twenty metres.

Soccer City, Johannesburg
The new Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, another BAM International/Grinaker-LTA joint venture project, is nearing completion. The 94,000 seater stadium resembles a calabash or African pot, the colour of which varies from a rusty brown to off-white. Fibre cement panels in eighteen shades have been used to achieve this. As is the case with the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, BAM International's sister company HBM Stadien- und Sportstättenbau, as specialists in the construction of stadiums, is bringing its knowledge and experience of similar complex buildings to Johannesburg. The stadium will be ready in September 2009, and will be the setting for the kick-off of football?s World Cup on 11 June 2010.

During the recently held Fulton Award Ceremony, Soccer City won in the categories 'Best Building Project' and 'Concrete in Architecture' and received a commendation for Unique Design Aspects. These awards are for the top projects in South Africa for 'Excellence and Innovation in the Use of Concrete' and are awarded every two years.