Real Madrid is getting the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu ready, for this weekend’s match. With the Work half done, the doors will again open this Sunday, September 12, against Celta Vigo.
The game is a historic one, 560 days after the last time fans attended a game there on March 1, 2020, to see Los Blancos beat Barcelona in El Clasico.
Real Madrid No football for 560 days at Santiago
Real Madrid had never spent so long away from home. They played 11.5 kilometres away at Valdebebas for a year and a half, managing to win LaLiga Santander while they did it.
There were 800 workers a day on the site at the Bernabeu, including during lockdown. It is this that has made it possible for Real Madrid to return to play there on Sunday, with two of the new access towers and the pitch ready.
A sanitary warehouse during the pandemic and Storm Filomena
During these 560 days, the Bernabeu has been through it all. Trucks and cranes took over, and it looked like anything other than a football stadium. For a few months, it was made available as a sanitary warehouse by the club at the worst points of the pandemic.
The Bernabeu also saw the biggest snowfall of the century when Filomena left the Spanish capital painted white and work had to be stopped.
An average of 800 workers a day
Every day, 800 people went to work at the Bernabeu to get the job done at every level, from the pitch to the access towers, the internal tunnels and the five-story underground carpark. There has even been an entrance created for buses, though it’s not ready for use yet.
The work on the Bernabeu has been incredible. It cost 575 million euros and has been financed via a loan with a 2.5 percent fixed interest rate. It will be finished in January 2023.
The structural steel of 120 Airbus a380 aircrafts
The steel used in the refurbishment weighs 33,170,154 kilograms, which is the equivalent of 120 Airbus A380s. The concrete used covers 57,545 cubic metres, which is equal to the entire volume of water in the Retiro pond. The simultaneous load capacity of the cranes used was 4,106 tons, which is equivalent to lifting 400 Cibeles statues at the same time. [Via]
