By Paul Nicholson
September 17 – Qatar has started site work on its sixth stadium, the 80,000-seat Lusail Stadium which will host the opening match and final of the 2022 World Cup and which will be the centrepiece of the event.
Five kilometres of hoarding has been erected around the one million square metre site which has now completed the first phase of site investigation assessing the quality of the soil and the groundwater levels – key elements for the design of the stadium foundations and substructure.
Site offices and facilities have been installed as the permanent construction team gear up to begin groundwork proper.
Mubarak Al-Khulaifi, the Qatar Supreme Committee project director at Lusail Stadium, said: “We are very pleased to have initiated a presence on the site, which has a special significance for us all as the proposed host venue for the Opening and Final matches of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar. Following the timely conclusion of the early works phase, we aim to shortly commence enabling works. The scope for this phase will be comprised of the heavy civil works required to facilitate the construction of the stadium structure.”
Located in Lusail City, 15 kilometres north of Doha, the design is being led by Foster + Partners working closely with the Supreme Committee “to capture a sense of local and regional architecture, reflecting the aesthetics of Qatar”.
The Qatari’s have stressed that the stadium must work both in aesthetic design with the Lusail City architectural plan, and the more general local infrastructure master-plan. Regular coordination with the local municipal authority for the exchange of engineering information about the utilities and services is a core part of the early build stages to ensure alignment with the available sources in the area.
“The concept phase of the stadium design has been completed and approved, opening the way for the schematic phase. For Lusail Stadium we are building a venue which will become an internationally-recognisable landmark,” added Al-Khulaifi.
The final design for Lusail Stadium will be presented in 2016.
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