Steel Frames - Stockholm Globe Arena

Stockholm Globe Arena is the tallest spherical building of the world with a diameter of 110 m and a height of 85 m. Besides the arena building the project encompasses also a hotel and several office and commercial buildings. The Globe seats up to 17 000 people and was inaugurated in February 1989 for the icehockey world championship in April 1989.

The steel structures in the Globe include a lower section up to the equator level with heavy curved welded box columns, gallery girders and stabilizing framework amounting to approx.
3 000 tons of steel. The components have been protected by fireproofing paint, applied in a painting station before delivery to the site.

The upper section of the dome above the equator is made up of a space frame type Mero, which includes approx. 600 tons of steel in the form of round and square tubes interconnected with joint balls.

A structure of special technical interest is the technical supply bridge over the arena, which is suspended from the roof via cables connected to a center column at the top of the dome. The steel structure in the bridge amounts to 120 tons, from which is hanged a jumbotron, lighting and other supplies, and temporary equipment of up to 30 tons anywhere in the bridge.

Various parts of the steel structures were fabricated in Goteborg, Stockholm, Hallstahammar and Handen, Sweden, Alavus, Peraseinajoki and Tampere, Finland, Würzburg, Germany and Japan.

The assignments of StBK Stalbyggnadskontroll included supervision of the quality assurance of the steel structures in the Globe and surrounding other buildings in the project. We have performed inspection and non-destructive testing of the heavy steel structures up to the equator, and checking of fabrication and quality control at the fabricators of the dome structures and steel structures adjacent to the Arena. Furthermore we have inspected the painting, including the fireproof painting of the main structure, as well as inspection of the site work.

The inspection and testing performed in the Globe project involved extensive visual inspection, magnetic particle testing and ultrasonics testing of steel and welds. On the other hand, not a single X-ray film of a weld has been taken, quite contrary to normal inspection procedures at the time. The documentation of our inspection and testing activities were reported in a large number of A4 binders.

For further details, see Göran Alpsten: Kvalitetssäkring av stålkonstruktioner i Globen, Bergsmannen, No. 3, 1989 (in Swedish).

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