Independência Stadium, a reserve stadium to replace the Mineirão

Some 60 years ago, the Raimundo Sampaio Stadium, better known as Independência, was home to three games during the first World Cup held in Brazil. It is well known that this stadium shall not be receiving any games during the 2014 World Cup, but nevertheless the stadium shall play an important role until then. Currently undergoing modernization work, the field used by América Mineiro shall be turned into a modern sports arena, and this stadium shall be the home of the big Minas Gerais clubs while the construction work on the Mineirão is in progress.

“All demolition work has been completed, and work is now in progress on contention and also land movement”, explains the architect who is responsible for the work, Leon Myssior. At present, the Raimundo Sampaio stadium has only kept the structure which houses the changing rooms, currently used as support space for the collaborators working on the site. In the end, the stadium shall have its capacity increased to 25 thousand people, shall be fully covered and shall also have a car park for 500 cars.

The refurbishment of the stadium is what can be called an industrialized work project. The whole structure shall be erected using prefabricated concrete pieces or steel components. “The solution makes it possible for this stage of the work to be executed together with the foundations and the movement of earth, thereby reducing the time span for completion, as we can work outside the work site, at the factory, with better quality than we could at the worksite”, Myssior explains. The work was subjected to a tender process for the sum of R$ 52 million (€ 21.8 million) but the winning bid made a proposal to build the stadium with R$ 46 million (€ 19.3 million). “The fact that this work is industrialized shows that there should not be much variation”, Mr Myssior believes.

The next stage of the work shall be the foundations, which have been somewhat hampered by the rain. “As yet, we cannot assess whether the rain shall have an impact in the final phase, but the fact that we have established simultaneous work gives us some breathing space. Due to its characteristics, at some moment it shall appear to be slow-moving, but this is because the parts are being constructed off the work site. When the cranes start assembling the structures, then the impression shall be that the work has accelerated. However, this happens because the projects are being implemented in parallel”, explains Mr Myssior. “We have also had a slight delay through bureaucratic problems regarding the clearance of funds by the Savings Bank. The expectation now is that in the middle of April these problems shall all be solved, and then the work shall gain momentum”.

The project of the future stadium was conceived in two main areas. One shall be the part used for football, and the second is an adjacent building for multiple uses. “It shall be a space used for events in general. It shall have a new car parking area, and also an area for projects organized by Senac, which is a partner of América , and a convention center”. Mr Myssior also explains that the second part, the multiuse structure, shall come at a later date, when the football stadium is already in operation.

Mobility and Accessibility
The Independência Stadium lies in the Horto district, and is surrounded by three major traffic corridors, namely Cristiano Machado, Silviano Brandão and José Cândido Silveira avenues. However, the highest expectations regarding accessibility lie with the Underground system, which has a station some 600 meters from the main gate to the stadium, and it is expected that this means of transport shall be used by some 70% of supporters.

In relation to access infrastructure, the important work has been replaced by demands made by the organization. There is a Government plan, in partnership with BHTrans (the company that is responsible for transport in the capital of Minas Gerais) to make the most of the unused capacity of the car park of the Boulevard Shopping Mall, which is nearing completion in the neighborhood of Santa Efigênia, close to the neighborhood of Horto.

“The plan is to isolate the immediate vicinity of the stadium on match days, so the traffic does not grind to a halt. One possibility would be for the people to park in the shopping center and then be transported to the stadium in a van, which shall also bring them back after the match. This would be a proposal of logistics, planning and operation, replacing infrastructure work which would be expensive and could make the situation worse. If the stadium has a car park, the supporters would arrive at almost the same time, and the exit would be even more concentrated. What we are doing is taking the cars away from the immediate vicinity of the Independência Stadium, an approach which we find interesting”, explains Mr Myssior.

Support for the World Cup
The proposal is that this new arena should be used as a Base Camp during the World Cup, and as such can receive specific actions or be training space for participating squads. “The Independência Stadium shall have capture and reuse of rainwater, optimized consumption of energy, and shall also be economically feasible. The new arena shall also be a kind of social equipment, with options for usage by the community and the local Neighborhoods Association, without any hampering of its main function as a football stadium”, the architect sums up.

The forecast is that the new Independência Stadium should be ready this coming October. As the Mineirão shall be closing in June for refurbishment work, the clubs from Belo Horizonte - América, Atlético and Cruzeiro - shall be playing their home matches at the Arena do Jacaré. This stadium, in the city of Sete Lagoas, is being refurbished for this purpose and should be usable by the end of April.