Renovation work on the Santiago Bernabeu, the home of Spanish LaLiga football club Real Madrid, will begin this summer, according to the man in charge of the project.
In October the club was given permission by the local council to press ahead with a €400m ($429m) redevelopment of the Bernabeu, with a new retractable roof to serve as the main feature of the new-look venue.
Renovation plans also include a new hotel and a small mall. A completion date has been set at 2020 and work is now expected to commence once the 2016-17 LaLiga season has finished in May.
“The project is complex because it will not stop the football and therefore complicates the works and design, which has a roof that encloses the whole stadium,” project leader Tristan Lopez Chicheri told Spanish newspaper Marca.
“They are going to lift the roof like the Romans did, but with modern technology. They will raise the inner ring by string-pulling with hydraulic jacks, bridge technology and ski lifts in a short period of time in the summer to respect the sporting calendar.
“If things go well, we’ll start this summer, when the league is over, and it will take about three seasons. With such a complex project, it’s not easy to give an exact time.”
