As the Steelers move into their new home, their hopes and dreams will unfold among 12,500 tons of steel.
That's how much of the team's namesake metal is in Heinz Field according to Hirschfeld Steel Co., the San Angelo, Texas-based steel contractor for the stadium. That's as much steel as you'd find in the cars at a decent Steelers tailgate party (roughly 17,000 mid-size cars to be exact).
Vice President David Hirschfeld Jr. said most of the steel was delivered by rail to fabricators, who shipped it by truck to the North Shore site once their work was done.
The steel cost $31.4 million, or about as much as the Steelers have handed out in signing bonuses this year. Most of it was made by three domestic producers: U.S. Steel, Chaparral Steel, and Nucor-Yamato Steel. Smaller amounts, such as steel reinforcing bars used in concrete, are harder to trace because they were purchased through distributors.
U.S. Steel's Gary (Ind.) Works supplied 1,493 tons of A36 plate steel, ranging in thickness from a half inch to 2 inches, said Scott Pape, manager-commercial of the steelmaker's Plate Products business. Compare that to the 112 tons of U.S. Steel plate that went into PNC Park.
The A36 name refers to the American Society for Testing and Materials standard that the steel was formulated to meet. The standard was first published in 1960, when Bobby Layne quarterbacked the Steelers and the head coach was Buddy Parker.
"It is the most common grade of steel that we sell in the plate mill," Pape says.
The metal was fabricated into beams and other structural shapes and used throughout the stadium.
There's a lot of steel in the Steelers' new home 
E-mail this story 
