ASK Romein has constructed a new roof for the AFAS Stadium in Alkmaar (NL). For improved comfort, the new roof extends four metres farther than the existing one on all sides. It also features nicely integrated sustainable LED lighting along the roof’s edge to replace the light poles. The project’s showpiece is a 600-ton mega-truss, 170 metres long. This enormous arch functions as the roof for the Molenaar spectator stand. Two giant crawler cranes lifted the structure neatly into place.
The megatruss is made up of circular hollow sections. The connections are partly welded and partly bolted. These details have been checked in Idea Connection with forces exported directly from the main calculation model in Scia Engineer, including the forces when at member faillure.
In addition to the construction of the Megatruss, another challenge in the project was to absorb the movements of the different roofs. Various creative sliding supports have been designed for this purpose for displacements in 2 directions and still connecting tie forces for resisting progressive collapse. These details are checked in Idea Connection in different positions of the sliding distance.
