50 years have passed, current state, studies and safety assessment of hanging roof above the main sport and entertainment hall in Katowice

Abstract

The article presents a brief description of the 50-year-old history of the Katowice “Spodek”, and cites the selected facts about the object, beginning at the stage of design and realization to exploitation. The structure of the building has been described with great emphasis on the construction of the covering suspended on cable girders in combination with original architecture was an extremely bold constructional solution of those times. The main part of this work includes results of research from force measurements conducted in tendons realized in the present year, that is in 2019, together with their analysis with reference to archival results from research conducted in the years 1971, 1978, 1985, 1990 or 2006. Particular attention is drawn to the fact, that despite the passage of time, the elaborated method for measurements and measurement devices used for research has not changed across the years and still allows to obtain the relevant picture of the construction’s performance. The obtained results have shown that the assumptions adopted for the then innovative solutions were received correctly, and the renovation works in the scope of roof covering significantly disburdened the construction, allowing a considerable safety reserve despite its over half-century exploitation.