AFP/Doha
Preparations for the 2022 World Cup are continuing at a brisk pace with construction on six of at least eight venues underway, including preliminary work on an 80,000-seater stadium in Lusail where the final will be held.
Lusail is a new $45 billion city being built 15 kilometres (10 miles) north of Doha.
Qatar will even complete work on the first ground, the 40,000-seater Khalifa International Stadium—the venue for the 2019 World Athletics Championships—by the end of 2016, six years before the first game will be played, boast World Cup officials .
Elsewhere, work has begun on the Al Rayyan stadium, the Qatar Foundation Stadium and the Al Wakrah stadium—which takes “the dhow boats that carried generations of Qatari fishermen and pearl divers” to sea as a design inspiration.
All are 40,000 seat venues, which will host matches up to the quarter-finals.
Also underway is work at the Al Bayt Stadium. This 60,000 capacity venue will host one of the World Cup semi-finals.
A final decision will be taken by FIFA at the end of the year about how many stadiums will be used in 2022. The work can be monitored and overseen on CCTV by some of the more than 400 members of Qatar’s World Cup organising team from an all-white space-age control room in their skyscraper Al Bidda Tower headquarters on the Doha waterfront.
“Great progress has been made so far in preparations,” Nasser al-Khater, assistant general secretary of Qatar’s organising committee, said last month. “Since winning the bid in 2010, incredible amounts of work have gone in.”
Despite Qatar looking for potential budget cuts elsewhere, spending on the World Cup is protected, HE Finance Minister Ali Sherif al-Emadi said this year.
Most notable of the huge projects underway is the Doha Metro, estimated to cost around $36 billion.
This will begin running in 2019 in an attempt to alleviate Qatar’s congested roads. So far 21 boring machines have carved away 60 percent of the 113 kilometres (70 miles) of tunnels needed for the network.
The plan is to have 37 stations operating in four years, say World Cup officials. A tram line will be built to Lusail.
There are also new roads and a new docks being built in the west of Qatar.
Among others projects is a vast almost $5 billion reservoir programme designed to help conserve water in the desert state.
World Cup organisers claim up to one million people will visit Qatar in November and December 2022, when the tournament will be staged.
A new airport—the $17 billion Hamad International—is already in use.
Even the national football team seems to have caught the preparation bug and could qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time for the 2018 tournament.
STADIUM DEVELOPMENT UPDATE
Al Wakrah Stadium:
Work start date: December 2013
Expected date of completion: 2018
Work progress in the past year: Completion of fencing work. Completion of piling work and laying of foundations. Preparing the site for the start of the main building operations. Kahramaa (Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation) has also begun building an electricity substation for the stadium.
Developments expected next year: Awarding of contract to main contractor in the next week. Start of stadium building operations.
Al-Bayt Stadium in Al Khor City (delivered by Aspire Zone):
Work start date: June 2014
Expected date of completion: 2018
Work progress in the past year: Completion of site preparation and enabling works. Beginning of project operations. Awarding of contract to main contractor. Signing of contact with the Khor and Thakhira Company to build workers’ accommodation.
Developments expected next year: Starting of main foundations and provision of electrical and sanitation services to the stadium. Completion of workers’ residence.
Khalifa International Stadium (delivered by Aspire Zone):
Work start date: October 2014
Expected date of completion: 2016
Work progress in the past year: Awarding of contract to main contractor for the building of the power station. Completion of demolition work on old areas of the stadium. Completion of electricity and sanitation works.
Developments expected next year: Completion of renovation operations ahead of stadium taking its final form.
Qatar Foundation Stadium (delivered by Qatar Foundation):
Work start date: March 2015
Expected date of completion: 2019
Work progress in the past year: Beginning of foundation piling operations.
Developments expected next year: Awarding of contract to main contractor.
Al Rayyan Stadium:
Work start date: June 2014
Expected date of completion: 2019
Work progress in the past year: Demolition of Ahmed ben Ali Stadium. Completion of enabling works on site. Invitation sent to qualified companies to bid for main contractor position in October. Most piling operations will be completed by the end of the year.
Developments expected next year: Awarding of contract to main contractor, building of electricity substation by Kahramaa.
Lusail Stadium:
Work start date: October 2014
Expected date of completion: 2020
Date design will be announced: 2016
Work progress in the past year: In 2015, the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) completed the necessary geophysical studies to work out the design of the stadium and its foundations. The SC also completed the fencing of the site and built offices for the project. The entire team responsible for Lusail Stadium relocated to the site.
Developments expected next year: Beginning of the first phase of construction, including the main piling operations and laying of foundations.
A computer image of the upcoming Al Rayyan Stadium.
