PORTO ALEGRE / PR: Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff followed up her visit to Manaus last week by inspecting the new Beira-Rio venue in Porto Alegre. The official inauguration of the stadium will take place in April.

With a new foil shaped roof and a remodeled façade in the colors of the Internacional Sport Club, the Beira-Rio is ready for further the test events since the first match after remodelling last February 15.

The match was a fixture of the Rio Grande do Sul State Championship: the venue’s capacity was limited to 10,000 fans and Internacional returned home in style, thumping Caxias 4-0.  Left-back Fabrício scored the first goal at the new arena in the 21st minute. The match also served as a test event for the World Cup.

The club’s goal is to put the venue in operation little by little, until it reaches full capacity – 50,000 people. Some finishing work is still being done in some sectors and the surrounding area of the ground is also undergoing construction work to make the access for fans easier.  The stadium’s official reopening will be at the start of April.

On 26 February, Internacional plays host to Brasil de Pelotas, also a fixture of the State Championship.

» Fifty thousand seats offering more comfort and safety to fans

» Construction works and operations based on sustainability concepts

» More resistant pitch and a lighting system that makes it look like as if it were daylight

Refurbishment works that have changed how the ground looks, started twenty-four months ago and involved as many as 1,700 workers when construction reached its peak.

The total investment was of R$ 330 million, with R$ 275.1 million being provided as financing by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES). Beira-Rio is the eighth World Cup stadium to be delivered and the second in the south region.

“The stadium is at a very privileged location. It’s on the banks of the Guaíba River, which is a great place to watch the sunset. We’re right beside a park. Three kilometers away from the main hotels. The airport is nearby. And two big roads go around the stadium, providing good accessibility,” said Internacional’s technology manager Carla Ritter.

Project

The project kept the stadium’s main structure, modernizing the stands and facilities for the public in general. This includes the VIP areas, the replacement of the electrical wiring and hydraulic pipes, adding to the stadium’s information system, replacing the pitch, in addition to the roof, which uses a metal structure and membrane. In addition, a garage building was built.

The new aspects at the new Beira-Rio that stand out the most are the façade and the foil shaped roof. The façade is made out of galvalume steel in red, white and silver. The project respected the design of the structure already at the stadium, reinforcing its vertical lines.

The structure of the access ramps to the upper stands was kept in concrete, with the aim of bringing out the tilted pillar and beams. The access to the mixed zone was also made to stand out more, where the stretch of façade is coated with a ‘glass skin.’

The roof is made up by 65 foil shaped modules, covering all places in the stadium, including the ramps and access ways to the gates. The roof is made from a heat reducing membrane. In the main modules, the membrane is semi see-through and completely see-through between the foils, which allows for light to get into the stadium.

In addition, the roof is self-cleaning, using the minimum amount of water possible, as well as reducing heat absorption. There is also a secondary aesthetic outlining effect of the foil structure, which really brings out the building’s design.

Beira-Rio – Porto Alegre – January 2014

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Comfort and safety

With technology integrated to all sectors, the new Beira-Rio promises a different experience for its punters. “We have numbered seats. No-one stands up, nobody stands in the hallways, everyone has somewhere to sit. The stadium is divided. The public can move around freely.

“If a person is sitting on one side and wants to grab something to eat which is being sold on the other side, they can stroll through the hallways, which are wide. Everything is aimed at providing as much comfort as possible,” explains Carla Ritter.

The distance between steps on the stands went from 60cm in some sectors, to 90cm, which provides more leg room. The seats are retractable, which also makes moving around easier. The seats use the colour red SL –C2014/D VM 764 – especially developed for the club, as it refers to red used in Internacional’s main jersey.

In addition, fans will be able to see the pitch better, as the stands are now closer to it: minimum distance from the stands to the corner spot is of 9.7 meters. A reduction of 15 meters in distance.

Fans will have 17 access ways available to them, two built specifically for wheelchair users. With more access gates and a more modern set-up, a packed out Beira-Rio may be emptied in just eight minutes. The project anticipates the building of 14 circulation towers that will provide access from levels 1 to 6, as well as comfort and speedy moving around for punters.

In all, the new Beira-Rio will have 81 lavatories, 31 female, 31 male, eight for children and four put aside for those with special needs. In addition, there are two lavatories integrated to the dressing rooms and for servicing the shops, as well as four for the press and one for the control booths.

Beira-Rio – Porto Alegre  Photos of Stadium

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Paulino Menezes/Portal da Copa/ME

Photos for download available at:  http://www.copa2014.gov.br/sites/default/files/galeria/180214beirario_5982pm.jpg

Pitch

Players will feel more comfort at the new Beira-Rio. The pitch meets international quality standards: The pitch is made up of a natural grass hybrid system, which uses the Bermuda TifGrand species, reinforced with elastic fibres imported from Europe, increasing resistance to trampling and low temperatures. The irrigation and drainage systems were also modernized.

The level of lighting at the stadium in Porto Alegre will have features similar to daylight. The stadium uses 404 2,000 watt floodlights, so as to ensure more vibrant colours, without shadows for fans, players and those watching the match on television.

The new dressing rooms are bigger and well structured, and provide the same standard for the home and away teams. They are equipped with showers, an exclusive room for the technical staff, as well as massage, physiotherapy and warm-up rooms. There are also dressing rooms for the referees.

“The dressing rooms are exactly the same for Inter’s players as for the visiting teams. Referees, ball catchers and anti-doping teams all have their specific areas,” states Carla Ritter.

Renewed and ready to be a World Cup stage, the Beira-Rio shall host international derbies during the tournament. The first match to be held at the ground will be a Group E game on 15 June between France and Honduras. Three days later, in a Group B match, 2010 World Cup runners-up Holland take on Australia.

The third match to be played in Porto Alegre will see South Korea face Algeria (Group H) on 22 June.  Then, on 25 June, Argentina – seeded team in Group F – takes to the pitch against Nigeria for the last group stage match to be held at the ground.

In addition, Porto Alegre will be the stage of one of the round of sixteen matches, when the first place of Group G (Germany, Portugal, Ghana and United States) takes on the second place in Group H (Belgium, Algeria, Russia and South Korea). The match will be held on 30 June.

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