Design Solution · Materials Science
Design Solution · Dream about it
Recycled-content steel for the bowl and long-span roof.
The bowl and long-span roof are built from around 12,200 tonnes of structural steel, of which a substantial share is recycled steel. Specifying recycled-content sections cuts embodied carbon in the highest-tonnage element of the structure. Long-span roof trusses (around 170m) cover the stands without intermediate columns.
Using recycled-content structural sections in the bowl and long-span roof is one of the more tractable embodied-carbon interventions available at stadium scale because it operates through procurement rather than structural redesign — the same section sizes, the same detailing practice, lower upstream carbon per tonne. At roughly 12,200 tonnes for bowl and roof, even a moderate recycled-content proportion produces a meaningful reduction in the project's embodied carbon account, and the claim is plausible given that UK and European steelmakers routinely supply sections with significant scrap-furnace content. The honesty check is in the word 'substantial' in the description, which is doing a lot of work without a number: EPD-backed declared recycled content, mill certificate verification and supply chain traceability are what converts a procurement intent into a verified embodied-carbon saving, and none of that is evidenced here. Long-span roof trusses at approximately 170 metres are a significant structural achievement independent of material specification, but the fabrication lead time for bespoke long-span elements can conflict with recycled-content sourcing if the steelmaker with the right section programme does not offer the required content. The specifier should require declared recycled content by weight from EPDs at the procurement stage, not just a general specification aspiration.
#steel #embodied carbon #long span