National Speed Skating Oval, dubbed the “Ice Ribbon”, is designed with “Ice” and “Speed” as design symbols. It is not only an iconic gymnasium for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, but also the only newly-built ice competition venue where speed skating competition and training will be carried out. “Ice Ribbon” achieves innovations and breakthroughs in design concept, technical process, material selection, construction technique and other aspects, and crystalize into a “Chinese solution” with numerous scientific and technological highlights that can be used for reference by the international community.
National Speed Skating Oval is the first to realize the cooperation between the governments and social capitals under PPP Mode, which is undertaken and tendered by Beijing Major Projects Construction Headquarters Office. In February 2018, National Speed Skating Oval Co., Ltd. was jointly established by BSAM (on behalf of governmental investor of National Speed Skating Oval Construction Project), Beijing Capital Development Co., Ltd., Beijing Urban Construction Group, Beijing UN-Construction Group, China National Sports Group and other social capitals. National Speed Skating Oval Construction Project kicked off at that time. The main part of National Speed Skating Oval Construction Project reaches about 80,000 square meters, consists of two storeys under the ground and three storeys on the ground. There are two underground parking garages in the east and west. About 12,000 and 8,500 spectator seats will be available during the Games and after the Games, respectively.
The 198-meter-long and 124-meter-wide roofing cable net structure of National Speed Skating Oval is single-layer two-way orthogonal cable net structure with the world’s largest span. By pooling the wisdom of all parties and uniting the efforts of all parties, National Speed Skating Oval Co., Ltd. takes only less than two years to successfully complete the tensioning of this single-layer two-way orthogonal saddle-shaped roofing cable net structure with the largest span in China, which has filled the synchronous tensioning technology gap through the first-ever super-large-span single-layer orthogonal cable net with high tonnage and large area in China.
The steel structure of National Speed Skating Oval comprises three parts: stiffened structure, steel ring truss and cable net structure. The steel consumption totals 14,000 tons. Made in China, high-vanadium closed cables are used for the whole steel structure. The steel consumption of roof system is only about one-fourth of that in the traditional roofing, which represents the international cutting-edge level and embodies the concept of “Green Olympics” in a true sense. In 2019, National Speed Skating Oval Construction Project won the highest award in the domestic steel structure industry—“Annual Outstanding Project with Gold Award of China’s Construction Engineering Steel Structure”.
National Speed Skating Oval applies thorough ice-surface design. Its ice surface of 12,000 square meters ranks the first in Asia. Furthermore, setting a precedent in the history of the Olympic Games, National Speed Skating Oval adopts Carbon Dioxide Transcritical Direct Evaporation Refrigeration Ice-Making System, which has become the first Winter Olympics speed skating venue with natural refrigerant carbon dioxide as a freezing medium in the world.
With outlook on the bright future, in the process of long-run sustainable development of the Olympic venues, National Speed Skating Oval will be built into a new-type urban cultural and sports complex with ice and snow sports as the core to comprehensively fuel national fitness and sports consumption, and pursue the goal of a new coordinate that meets the people’s desire for a better wintertime life.
