With many challenges to find a solution for, the Stewarts & Lloyds’ Robertville, Gauteng team, the branch assigned the project, has been busy over the past two years with a huge project for Nike SA manufacturing and fabricating the roofing structure for the new Shapa Soweto Training Centre, a beautiful, functional and very impressive one-of-a-kind assembly.

The roofing structure is made of 406 individual structures built out of Y8 rebar, 1.6mm HR sheets, 50mm by 50mm by 5mm angle and 50mm by 5mm flat bar. The total weight on the Y8’s that were cut and bent was 70 tons meaning that approximately 4 861m of Y bar was used. Stewarts & Lloyds Robertville supplied all the material for this unique structure and assisted with the bending of the Y8 bar according to the requirements.

The roofing structure of the new Nike SA sponsored Shapa Soweto Training Centre that was manufactured and fabricated by Stewarts & Lloyds

Each structure has 28 different slats made up of 6 x Y8’s bent two degrees more than the first one. That equals to a total of 168 single strand Y8’s per structure! Each completed triangular structure creates a Nike logo pattern that when you walk under it, it gives you almost a psychedelic feel.

Making this project even more interesting is the fact that no rebar machine bends at these angles. The Robertville team of Stewarts & Lloyds was really tested as they tried to see if hand bending would work, but that made the task impossible in the time span. What ended up working for the team was to forge pins for a reinforcing machine to specially bend at these small degrees. The whole process was extremely complicated as the team had run through 40 pins as they would snap due to their small diameter.

Bending the 8mm reinforcing steel rods, referred to as Y8 rebar, to the exact angles that were required had never been achieved by hand before. Every bar had to be bent to an exact angle and had to create the Nike Swoosh effect.

The roofing structure is made of 406 individual structures built out of Y8 rebar, 1.6mm HR sheets, 50mm by 50mm by 5mm angle and 50mm by 5mm flat bar. The total weight on the Y8’s that were cut and bent was 70 tons meaning that approximately 4 861m of Y bar was used. Stewarts & Lloyds Robertville supplied all the material for this unique structure and assisted with the bending of the Y8 bar according to the requirement

The project, which was initiated in November 2019, stretched over two years due to COVID-19 restrictions and material shortages.

According to the Robertville branch of Stewarts & Lloyds, the challenges were endless and it really seemed impossible to complete the project, at times. Material shortages with Y8 rebar not being readily available and only supplied in small amounts, staff shortages and restrictions on movement, price increases of material, production delays due to the forged pins snapping after every couple of tons of bending the rebar and not being able to deliver on the dates as required were some of the obstacles thrown at the team.

Bending the 8mm reinforcing steel rods, referred to as Y8 rebar, to the exact angles that were required had never been achieved by hand before. Every bar had to be bent to an exact angle and had to create the famous Nike Swoosh effect

“To be honest this was the most challenging and unique project to date for us. If it was not for the team behind me I really would not have been able to push through on this project. The technicality, intricacy, difficulty and uniqueness of this project with its road blocks made us realise that nothing is impossible if you put your heart and mind to it,” said Robertville’s Sales Manager Andre Stander.

“At the end of the day to look back at all of this I would not have done it any other way and surely not with any other team than the one I had with me. Every single person played a vital and pivotal role in the completion of this project.”

“The sports centre is aimed at inspiring and empowering the next generation of athletes and it is an honour to have been a part of such a great and inspiring project. Stewarts & Lloyds Robertville is proud to have been able to deliver this one of a kind structure working together with the architects and engineers from C76 architects, Aspire Consulting Engineers, Billet Construction and Estee Automation who did most of the fabrication work.”

The project was completed in mid-2021 and it has been entered for the Steel Awards that are held annually by the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction (SAISC).

For further details contact Stewarts & Lloyds on TEL: 011 553 8500 or visit www.stewartsandlloyds.co.za