Peri helps 2010 World Cup kick off

Kicking off later today (11 July), the 2010 FIFA World Cup will see nine South African cities play host to 32 teams, playing 64 matches to find the 19^th FIFA world champion.

Of the nine stadia used for the World Cup, four were constructed especially for the tournament in Durban, Cape Town, Nelspruit and Bloemfontein with seating capacities of 45000 to 70000.

Germany-based Peri supplied a range of its formwork to each of the four stadia, including its panel slab Skydeck, Multiprop slab props, Trio and Vario GT 24 wall formwork systems for the stairwells and lift shafts, and UZR beam walers.

Project support and rental logistics was handled by its South African dealer Wiehahn.

Greenpoint Stadium

The Greenpoint Stadium in Cape Town and the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban will be the venues for the two semi-final games, with each stadium having a capacity of almost 70000 spectators. The 340 mm thick reinforced concrete slab of the seven-storey high grandstand was formed using Peri's panel slab Skydeck, Multiprop slab props.

Thanks to the low individual weight of each aluminium component, and the systematic assembly sequence, the forming was completed problem free. In addition, the Skydeck drophead system ensured short striking times as panels and main beams were available for the next cycle in a very short space of time.

Apart from the low weight and the high load-bearing capacity, the Multiprop has a large extension length, a big advantage when it came to forming the stadium's varying floor heights.

Connected with Multiprop frames, the slab props were also used as shoring towers. This meant the cantilevered formwork for the slab edges could be supported for the height of several floors with the loads being safely transferred to the ground.

Supplementing this were the Trio and Vario GT 24 wall formwork systems for the stairwells and lift shafts.

Moses Mabhida Stadium

The Trio panel formwork and the Vario GT 24 girder wall formwork also played a crucial role for the construction of the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. The Trio system was used to form the ballast tanks underneath the stadium structure together with the architectonic fair-faced concrete walls of the five access tunnels to the pitch and the three enormous abutments for the arch support structure of the stadium roof.

Elsewhere in the stadium the Vario GT 24 wall and column formwork system was used to form the reinforced concrete columns and elevator shafts as well as the inclined grandstand support beams. The Vario formwork elements were pre-assembled at Wiehahn's rental depot and delivered just-in-time, ready-to-use on the construction site.

Mbombela Stadium and Vodacom Park Stadium

For construction of the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit and the Vodacom Park Stadium in Bloemfontein, the Multiprop system provided high load-bearing capacities and a high degree of flexibility - finding use as individual slab props and frame-connected shoring towers.

Multiflex girder slab formwork combined with UZR beam walers were used to build both slabs and beams. Using GT 24 formwork girders allowed large spans which meant intermediate supports could be avoided as far as possible.