The glass roof of the new Cape Town Stadium will be completed and sealed, and the fabric membrane underneath fully installed by 15 October – well on schedule for the handover of the stadium to the City of Cape Town on 14 December 2009 this year.

With less than nine months to 2010 World Cup kick-off, and three months to the deadline for completion of the stadium, contractors are busy with the final touches to what many visitors and journalists believe will be one of the finest stadia in the world.

Cape Town will host eight World Cup matches, most of them at night, including one semi-final.

All the concrete work is complete, and the focus is now on commissioning cabling, IT infrastructure and electricity connections. Closed circuit television cameras, used to monitor crime and crowd behaviour, are still to be installed. The cameras will be linked to the Venue Operations Centre (VOC) which will be staffed by police, disaster management and transport staff, and other experts on site.

Construction of the steel support columns for the exterior fabric façade of the stadium is 70% complete, and the fabric will be attached as weather permits. The outer ‘skin’ – which will give a warm glow to the light emanating from the stadium – is scheduled for completion by the end of November.

Work is also underway on the internal architectural finishes such as painting, ceilings, doors and locks. Most of the inside equipment has been installed on five of the six levels.

All the inside cranes have been dismantled and removed and a giant crane is busy dismantling the large cranes outside the stadium. About 25% of the 68 000 seats have been installed, and the multi-layered foundations are being laid for the pitch. Two pitches have been prepared in Stellenbosch, one of which will be held in reserve. The grass pitch is due to be laid in October.

Two big display screens are still to be erected in the north-eastern and south-western corners of the stadium.

Temporary seating to raise capacity from 55 000 to 68 000 for the World Cup will be installed early in 2010, in good time for ‘the greatest show on earth’ which gets underway on 11 June 2010.

The stadium Visitor Centre – at least in its present form - will close at the end of September 2009, and the City is looking to make alternative arrangements for visitors until a new visitor centre is opened by the stadium operators in January 2010.

The raised Green Point traffic circle is almost complete and is already taking traffic on the incoming lane to the city centre.

DID YOU KNOW?

• There are 7,4 kilometres of steel cabling in the stadium roof
• The glass covers 37 000 square metres
• There are about 9 000 pieces of glass
• The roof weighs 4 500 tons
• Construction of the stadium started in March 2007
• Under the stadium are police holding cells, a large media centre, a drop-off zone for players and VIPs, practise and warming-up areas and lifts to the upper levels
• Three ‘test’ events are planned prior to kick-off. Details are not yet finalised, but events will be held for 20 000, 40 000 and 60 000 spectators between January and April 2010.