Olympic Stadium Finally Ready For Games

(ATR) After a lengthy upgrade, Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic Stadium is prepared to host events again.

The Olympic Stadium, known as Engenhão, was inaugurated by Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes on May 12. Paes handed over the keys to the stadium to Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman and declared the venue ready to be tested.

On May 14-16 the stadium will host a test event for athletics, with a test of Paralympic athletics coming on May 18-21.

Engenhão was originally built for the 2007 Pan American Games. After the Games, football club Botafogo signed a lease to take over the stadium and become the building’s primary tenant. By 2013, a German company released a report showing the stadium's roof suffered from a lack of structural integrity. That report kicked off a lengthy renovation of the roof, which was only completed in January of this year.

Alexandre Pinto, Municipal Secretary for Works, told Around the Rings to repair the roof the city installed a set of trellises to hold up the roof instead of the original arched design.

"We put more than 1,300 tons of steel into this new structure, and that was enough security to reopen the stadium," Pinto added.

The city was able to open the stadium temporarily at the end of 2015 to host some Botafogo matches in the second level of the Brazilian National Football Championship.

Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman told ATR that it was a relief for the Organizing Committee to finally see the stadium completed. Nuzman called the renovatedEngenhão "a beautiful stadium," and that the national athletics federation will discuss how to use the newly installed track in the future.

To get the stadium Games-ready, Rio City hall renovated the elevators, bathrooms, fire protection system and sound equipment. A new main and warm-up track inside the stadium was also built for the Olympics. In addition 15,000 temporary seats were added to the facility bringing the total capacity up to 60,000.

"Much of the cost here was operations of the track and part of the energy upgrades," Paes said to reporters during the inauguration. "The Olympics requires the use of two networks, in addition to new generators. It ended up being an important legacy for Engenhão."

City Hall did not just renovate the inside of the stadium. As part of Olympic upgrades, the city spent $33.3 million in developing the surrounding neighborhood. One of the main upgrades was to the Praca do Trem, or the old train station located just outside of the stadium. The old warehouse located in the square will house the "Olympic Knowledge Vault," which will be a museum dedicated to the 2016 Games. A total of 32 streets were renovated to help improve the accessibility in the neighborhood outside the stadium including newly paved sidewalks, wheelchair entrances, and a new bike path.

"There were warehouses of the Federal Railway that were abandoned for many years, and Nuzman managed a few years ago to pass the property to the Brazilian Olympic Committee," Paes said of the Praca do Trem.

"The idea was to make them the headquarters of the committee, but when we won the Olympics, I asked Nuzman to give it to City Hall to make a large square to an area of town that did not have any free space.

"The area is ready now in Games mode, and afterwards it will be a leisure area."

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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