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The topping off ceremony held on August 14 commemorated the final two structural steel beams to be put into place at the new Consol Energy Center, the future home of the Pittsburgh Penguins which apparently is second to none in the National Hockey League.

A “gold” beam, representing the second-to-last piece of structural steel to be placed into the new arena, featured the signatures of Mario Lemieux and the Penguins. The last of the steel beams was autographed by all the construction workers. Both beams were fabricated at the Point of Rocks, MD plant.

Structal-Heavy Steel Construction supplied 8,000 steel components weighing a total of 7,000 tons for the construction of the arena’s structural steel frame. The arena, designed to seat more than 18,000 spectators, is slated to open for the Pens’ 2010-2011 season.


The members of the Structal-Heavy Steel Construction team on hand for the topping off ceremony: Peter Murphy, project manager; Michel Lafrance, vice president of operations; Dave Breau, project manager; Luc Pelland, president; William Muchesko, vice president of operations, United States; and Peter Clark, project manager.


The “gold” beam signed by the Pittsburgh Penguins


An American flag was handed to Mario Lemieux by a crane operator. Afterwards, the flag was placed on top of the final beam before it was raised to the top of the structure.