Dillinger heavy plate for the
Pierre Mauroy stadium

From a geographical point of view, the Pierre Mauroy stadium (until June 2013 named Grand Stade Lille Métropole) is in the heart of Europe, at the centre of the triangle London-Paris-Brussels. It is named after the former French Prime Minister and mayor of Lille for decades. It officially opened in August 2012 and at this time it was among the three largest French multifunctional stadiums after the Stade de France in Paris and the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille. In autumn 2013 the stadium was awarded European Steel Design Award 2013. Reminiscent of a stranded spaceship, the stadium reaches a height of 31 m and has a total capacity of 50,186 seats. This exceptional edifice with its multifaceted configurations has two technical innovative particularities. The two-part roof (weighing 7,400 t, 205 m long and 110 m wide) is retractable and can be closed or opened in only thirty minutes. In addition, the northern half of the field has been designed in such way that it can rise remotely (5 m) to cover exactly the southern half, opening up a further event area below it to receive other sport competitions (tennis tournaments, basketball and handball games), concerts and cultural events or hold seminars. For the construction of the roof of this stadium with cutting-edge technology Dillinger supplied nearly 5,400 t of heavy plate in grade S460ML in thicknesses of 20 to 120 mm and in grades S355N/NL and S355K2+N in 10 to 260 mm thicknesses.