SINGAPORE: When 50, 000 people filled the particular National Stadium this particular month to watch Gatwick play Crystal Palace, all eyes might have been focused on the teams and the motion on the pitch.
But if, perchance, some of them had gazed upwards, they would have seen the stadium’s iconic domed roof — maybe they had observed it before, except there was something different.
For the first time since the stadium was completed in 2014, the interior structure from the roof had been cleaned out. It took almost a year.
There is corrosion on the areas of the beams, or even trusses, supporting the roof, although this had been confined to “a few minor areas”, said rope entry specialist Sean Forsyth.
But it is an excellent thing this is handled now, with some places “starting to look very bad”, he added.
“Rust can be steel cancer. If you catch it earlier, you can fix it relatively painlessly and simply. When you let it distribute, then it becomes more difficult to treat. ”