Lima 2019 Athletes Village Ahead of Schedule

(ATR) Lima 2019 chief operations officer Carlos Manuel Lazarte says that financial bonuses available to the company constructing the Athletes Village for the Pan American Games are expediting the process.

Lazarte noted that the seven towers housing athletes in the village could be completed as early as December, substantially ahead of the initial deadline.

"This big project lets say has a motivational tool in which the builder is trying to finish before schedule," Lazarte tells Around the Rings during a tour following the conclusion of the Panam Sports General Assembly.

"The schedule for the completion date is supposed to be by the end of March on the residential side, the brick and mortar, but their expectation is to have that section ready by December.

"That will mean they will get a bonus from the contract if they are able to make it one, two or three months ahead."

The varying incentives are available to the Chilean and Peruvian construction consortium of Besco-Besalco, which procured the government tender for the project in the Villa El Salvador district of Lima.

"In the government-to-government agreement, instead of making them have overtime or extra costs, it actually allows them to get this bonus if they finish ahead of time or below the cost. They will share the bonus with the government."

The seven towers will house 1,096 apartments. Each unit will be comprised of three bedrooms with two beds in each, two bathrooms and a common area for the athletes. The units vary between 70-74 square meters each.

Additional time is allotted for completion of additional buildings, the dining hall, recreational areas, a swimming pool and other parts within the compact village.

Lazarte, a former national team field hockey player for Peru, said he is extremely impressed with the rapid progress made on the enormous project.

"Being a Peruvian, this was a big challenge time-wise and they’ve been able to build this faster than I thought," Lazarte said. "For our standards, they’ve made it on record time and they are surprising everyone."

Additional time is allotted for completion of the other sections and buildings within the village, which is walking distance to the gymnastics and karate venues.

Officials from the member NOCs of the Panam Sports received a tour of both the future athletes village and the VIDENA sports complex in the San Luis District on Thursday afternoon. Although it was advised that travel time between the village and venue cluster should require 21 minutes, 45 minutes was necessary due to substantial traffic delays.

The 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, the first ever contested in Peru, will take place July 26 to August 11.

Written and reported by Brian Pinelli in Lima

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