Qatar FIFA World Cup construction to start in 2014
Qatar to issue first tenders for Al Wakrah Stadium in Q1 2014
Five stadiums are expected to be in development by the end of next year.
Qatar will issue tenders for the for the Al Wakrah stadium in the first quarter of 2014, the secretary general of the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee has said.
Speaking at a press conference in Doha on November 17th, Hassan Al Thawadi told media that an enabling works contract for the first new-build stadium at Al Wakrah would be released in the first quarter of next year.
He added that the main contract for the planned 40,000 seat stadium was set to be tendered during the fourth quarter of next year.
It is expected that five of the stadiums will be at different stages of construction by the end of next year.
“Al Wakrah is the first of six stadiums already in the latter stages of the design process,” said Al Thawadi. “Our committee has issued ten major tenders to the market encompassing project and design managers and stadium-operation consultants.”
Designed by the London based firm of Zaha Hadid Architects, alongside AECOM Middle East, the Al Wakrah Stadium is set to be completed by 2018. Subsequent stadium openings will be carried out in a phased manner ahead of the final project completes in 2021, a year before the main event.
“The planning phase is the most important and crucial phase. We’ve taken three years to provide the planning phase, and now we’re moving towards the delivery mode,” added Al Thawadi.
In order to counter concerns regarding the extreme summer temperatures in the Arabian Peninsula, Qatar has announced a number of ambitious schemes to beat the heat. The Al Wakrah Stadium is one of them, with the stands set to be shaded and cooled to a temperature range between 24°C and 28°C, while the natural grass pitch will be cooled to 26°C.
The Committee said that the plan for the stadium would ‘incorporate shading, aerodynamic and mechanical cooling components’, but would not be drawn on specifics of the workings of the cooling system.
