Construction of Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Village 50 per cent complete
Work enters the home straight, with 17 out of 31 buildings erected
Construction of the apartment complex that will become the Olympic and Paralympic Village for the Rio 2016 Games has passed the 50 per cent completion mark. Based in Barra da Tijuca, in the west zone of Rio de Janeiro, the Village will have capacity for more than 18,000 guests, including athletes and officials. Construction started in July 2012 and the buildings will be finished in the first half of 2016.
“The project is progressing very well and it is exciting to see the Village take shape,” said Rio 2016’s Olympic and Paralympic Village Director, Mario Cilenti. “It is going to be incredible to have the best athletes in the world staying in one place, here in Rio, for the first Olympic and Paralympic Games in South America. We are doing everything to ensure they have the best possible facilities so they can focus all their attention on producing their best performances.”
Seventeen of the 31 buildings in the complex have already been erected and construction will be completed on the remaining 14 towers by the end of this year, with internal finishings to be done in 2015. The next stage will be installing the ‘overlay’ – the process of transforming a future residential complex into the Olympic Village. These works include the construction of a temporary medical centre, cafeteria with space for 5,000 people and gym, among other amenities.
Another challenge is guaranteeing the complete accessibility of the Village for the Paralympic athletes, who will arrive a few days after the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games on 21 August 2016. The opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games will take place on 7 September 2016.
“We have two to three days, at most, to carry out the transition from Olympic to Paralympic Village,” Cilenti said. “To do this, everything has to be thought about and built now. There will be around 700 accessible bathrooms, in addition to the common areas, which must meet the needs of not just wheelchair users, but also athletes with a visual impairment and with reduced mobility, amongst others.”
There are currently 6,500 workers involved in the project although this number will rise to 8,000 by the end of the year. They have already used an amount of concrete equivalent to four Maracanã Stadiums.
The 31 buildings will be divided into seven condominiums with a total of 3,604 apartments, 10,160 bedrooms, 10,150 bathrooms and more than 18,000 beds. The total area will be 475,000m² and during the Games, about 10,000 people (staff, contractors and volunteers) will work in the operation of the Village.
“It is as if we are building a large hotel that will host the best athletes in the world, who will come from more than 200 countries to live together for a few glorious weeks in Rio,” said Cilenti.
Source & more more images of the Village construction works: Rio2016.com