PE’s Mandela Stadium ‘the first’

With the last of the stadium's 36 roof girders - each weighing 50 to 70 tons and spanning 36m - now in place, the stadium’s most complex construction element has now been successfully negotiated, as Nelson Mandela Bay looks set to become the first newly-constructed 2010 Fifa World Cup stadium to be completed.   The process wasn’t without its problems, as the first ship transporting the first of the roof girders broke down en route from Kuwait and another shipment couldn’t dock because of bad weather.   But those difficulties are a thing of the past, with the stadium now a proud and very visible symbol of the city's 2010 FIFA World Cup host city status.   Virtually all the stadium’s 46 000 seats have now been installed and the pitch has already been laid, with the stadium in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province raring to go and ready in good time to play host to some of the world’s best players next June.