World-class stadium repair and refurbishment

The tradition-steeped Estádio Municipal do Maracanã – or, as it is officially called, Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho – was built in the 1940s. Then the largest stadium in the world, it was also the star venue for the first Football World Cup in Brazil in 1950. Around 200,000 spectators watched the final between Brazil and Uruguay, which Uruguay won 2-1. To prepare it as one of the main venues for the 2014 World Cup, including for the final, the stadium was extensively rebuilt from 2010 to 2013 at a cost of 316 million euros.

From September 2010 onwards, the construction site was very busy: up to 5,200 people worked on repairing and modernising the arena and building both a press grandstand and new hospitality boxes. These repair and reconstruction measures reduced the capacity of the stadium to around 75,000 spectators. In the process, around 80,000 m³ of concrete was used. This had to meet a wide range of strength and resilience requirements, with admixtures from MC helping to ensure solid specification compliance.

Outstanding products, extensive expertise, trusted partner

As early as 2010, the MC Brazil team began working closely with the planning engineers and construction consortium chosen for the project to find solutions for the diverse structural engineering tasks of this large-scale undertaking. In addition to admixtures for the concretes, Emcekrete grouting concretes and concrete replacement systems from the Nafufill product family were also earmarked for application. The MC solutions offered were so compelling that the client ordered further MC solutions such as the crack-bridging polymer-quartz mixture Zentrifix CR and other Nafufill products. In February 2012, MC began the regular supply of these products in the huge quantities required to keep this major reconstruction project on track. The concrete repair and refurbishment work extended to all the grandstands and concrete floors. In addition, some of the concrete pillars were strengthened with MC’s injection technology. MC-DUR floor coatings were also used for the stadium walkways and stands, while MC concrete cosmetic products served to improve the appearance of the exposed surfaces.

Total team effort through to the final whistle

MC’s Brazilian team was very proud of its contribution in upgrading the legendary stadium to World Cup status. Offering numerous system solutions, MC exhibited extraordinary commitment to the tasks in hand. “The continuous presence of our employees as key contact persons on site, the professional instruction given to the installers and applicators, and the coordinated cooperation of all parties involved required enormous dedication from the entire team, from sales to application technicians,” said a delighted Jaques Pinto, Managing Director MC Brazil and Regional Director LATAM at MC. Even though Brazil did not make it to the final, the Brazilian MC colleagues rejoiced with their German counterparts in Germany’s World Cup victory over Argentina in the final.