Feature

Zenit Arena unlikely to be ready for Confederations Cup, contractor says

The construction of Saint Petersburg’s Zenit Arena will not be completed in time for next year’s Confederations Cup, according to the stadium’s recently-dismissed general contractor.

Zenit Arena is one of the stadiums due to host games during Russia’s staging of football’s Fifa World Cup in 2018, and is one of four venues due to stage matches during next summer’s Confederations Cup warm-up event.

However, Inzhtransstroy, which was last month notified by the city of St. Petersburg that its construction contract was being cancelled following a number of development delays, has issued a statement claiming the venue will not be ready for the Confederations Cup.

“The representatives of the general contractor have been under pressure from the customer for several months, although we are fully committed to continuing construction work,” the statement said, according to Russian news agency Tass. “However, changing the general contractor at the stage when the commissioned construction works at the stadium are 85% ready, makes it impossible to finish construction in the next 11 months.

“Such inconsistent decisions of the St. Petersburg Construction Committee, as well as the ever-changing conditions, lack of an agreed project documentation, (and) unresolved issues with the financing only mean that the stadium will not be ready to host the 2017 Confederations Cup.”

Despite work on the project having commenced in 2007, the venue is still unfinished. A target of December has been set for the completion, although it appears increasingly unlikely that work will be finished before the end of the year.

Sergei Ambarnov, director of planning and monitoring for the 2018 World Cup, told Tass that a new general contractor would be appointed within seven days.

Posted in Feature