DOHA: The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy’s (SC) preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar reached another significant landmark recently as more than 50 staff members moved into the newly-completed site offices at Al Wakrah Stadium.
They included people from project management consultants KEO and design consultants AECOM. Over the next year, the number of on-site staff will increase to 200 as the SC gains momentum towards delivering its first proposed World Cup stadium by 2018.
Ghanim Al Kuwari, the SC’s Competition Venues Director, said: “This is a very important move and highlights our organisation’s commitment to delivering stadiums. Our team is together now and sharing the same office. This is a clear sign that our mega project is making significant progress.”
Construction at Al Wakrah is moving at significant speed with enabling works currently being conducted and a main contract for construction set to be awarded in 2015. Progress on the ground is well underway with the bowl of the stadium currently being dug out and the precinct now visible on Google Earth.
Peter Randles, the SC’s Al Wakrah Manager, described the move as an exciting development.
“This is now the focal point for the delivery of the stadium,” said Randles. “We currently have about 50 machines on site that are digging the bowl of the stadium. Consequently, the project is moving at a fast pace — it has a dynamism and this latest move shows that we are very much focused on delivery,” Randles said.
Located 15km south of Doha, Al Wakrah Stadium was designed by AECOM in association with Zaha Hadid Architects. AECOM serves as the design consultant on the project while KEO International Consultants is the project manager. The 40,000-seater stadium, which will also feature a precinct and a range of sporting facilities, is due to be completed in 2018.
Upon completion, the stadium will become the home of Al Wakrah Sports Club and after the World Cup in 2022 — the modular upper tiers will be disassembled and distributed to nations in need of sporting infrastructure.
The stadium will also feature the innovative cooling technology being designed and developed by the SC for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar to meet the comfort needs of spectators and players.
The SC has already made significant steps in the research and development of this technology, having tested a prototype this summer at the Brazil 2014 Fan Zone in Doha. The open-air Fan Zone used the cooling technology to create temperatures that were 12 degrees Centigrade lower compared to the weather outside.
THE PENINSULA
