Warsaw stadium facing delays
Reuters - Wednesday 25 May 2011, 10:27
WARSAW - Faulty construction of evacuation
stairs at Poland's new national sports stadium in Warsaw may
delay the opening of the arena built for football's 2012 European
Championship, officials said on Wednesday.
The stadium on the bank of the Vistula river was scheduled
to be ready by the end of June, one year before Poland is due to
co-host Euro 2012 with Ukraine.
Mikolaj Piotrowski of PL.2012, the firm responsible for
co-ordinating preparations for the tournament, was asked if
completion of the stadium would be delayed.
"Yes, we have identified such risks, as well as some related
to quality and security. Key now are talks with the builder that
should result in a detailed schedule for fixing this," he told
reporters.
"It's too early to speak precisely about exact dates now.
There is no risk for Euro 2012 as it is still 380 days ahead of
us."
Polish daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna estimated possible
delays of up to 10 months, adding that there were also problems
with electricity installations.
On Wednesday, fears about the consequences of future delays
- Polish media estimate penalties of above 1 million zlotys
($356,600) per day - dragged down the shares of two
Warsaw-listed construction companies,
PBG and
Hydrobudowa, that are building the arena in
collaboration with Alpine Bau, an Austrian unit of Spain's FCC.
Another new sports venue under construction for Euro 2012,
the PGE Baltic Arena in the coastal city of Gdansk, this week
lost the right to host a friendly between France and
Poland scheduled for June 9 because it was not ready.