Volgograd Arena Getting Ready for Installation of Cable-Stayed Roof

Watch video about construction of Volgograd Arena (October, 2016)

Assembly of temporary structures of the cable-stayed system started at the Volgograd Arena stadium. Stroytransgaz, General Contractor, has started to install steel supports for cables, and to assemble wooden trays which will protect the grandstands already constructed from mechanical damage when the roof is being lifted.

Volgograd Arena will feature the largest cable-stayed roof in Russia (its smaller analogue is in Krasnodar). Globally, such lightweight structures are only erected in areas with little snow load. This is a cutting-edge solution that significantly cuts down metal requirement when building a project, since arena roofs are traditionally supported by internal partition walls from steel.

The central portion of the roof over Volgograd Arena will be composed of two rings 110m and 130m in diameter, one above the other. From the rings, radial cables will extend like rays and will maintain in tension the compression ring running around the stadium, you can already see it above the grandstands at a height of 40 meters.

The cable-stayed system will be lifted assembled. The lifting operation will take several months and will be completed in several steps with adjusting the tension of each cable by means of special equipment and software.

Once the cable-stayed system is mounted in 2017, installation of horizontal roof coverings (membrane coverings and polycarbonate) will commence; they will completely cover the grandstands, leaving the football pitch uncovered.

The cable-stayed system for Volgograd Arena is being manufactured in Switzerland, with 240 tonnes of cables and mounting hardware out of 690 tonnes already delivered to the site. The total length of cables 60 to 110mm in diameter will be approximately 7km.

At the same time, the stadium facade is continuing to be installed, with the first tier already completed and 4 sections of the second tier installed at elevation over 28 meters.

Ancillary buildings and structures such as booking offices and pavilions, entrance lobbies are being erected. Staircases of the bypass pedestrian overpass on the Volga side are being built, with one out of eight staircases completed and another three ones being concreted in-situ. Concreting of the ramp at the stadium’s central entrance from Lenin avenue commenced.

Finishing operations are well underway: construction of the reinforced floor on level 1 and lightweight concrete bulkheads on levels 2,3,4 of the stadium.