The Wanda Metropolitano stadium, built by FCC Construcción, has been named the “Best Municipal Public Works 2017” by the Civil Engineers’ Professional Association at the prestigious Demarcación de Madrid awards.

The prize was handed over yesterday in a ceremony at the Casa de América in Madrid by the Sustainable Urban Development Councillor Jose Manuel Calvo del Olmo to Miguel A. Gil, CEO of Atlético Madrid, to Pablo Colio, CEO of FCC Group, and to Antonio Cruz, architect of Cruz y Ortiz. The ceremony was attended by the General Secretary of Infrastructure, Manuel Niño, the Region of Madrid Environment Councillor Pedro Rollán, the Region of Madrid Town Planning Councillor Rosalía Gonzalo and various Councillors from Madrid City Council.

in awarding the prize to the new headquarters of Atlético Madrid, the jury considered its special nature as a civil engineering project and its general impact on the city of Madrid, in particular its contribution to rejuvenating the surrounding districts. As well as the sports function, the infrastructure has a social function, giving value to other transport infrastructures such as line 7 of the Madrid Metro. In FCC Construcción, the jury valued the design, its capacity as a construction company for complying with the schedules and the high technical quality.

The stadium occupies a total area of 88,150 square metres and has the capacity to house more than 60,000 fans distributed in a general area and a VIP area. It also has more than 1,000 parking spaces for fans in the stadium and 3,000 exterior parking spaces. The cutting edge design of the sports complex carries the stamp of the architects Cruz y Ortiz. The concrete finishes and the wide interior spaces allowing fans to move throughout the complex are particularly noteworthy.

The distribution of the new grandstands puts fans and/or spectators near the pitch. The new stadium has three T-shaped grandstands, lower grandstand consisting of 28 levels at the bottom and, in the preference areas, the middle grandstand with 13 levels for VIPs with direct access from the outside and, finally, a high grandstand supported on a perimeter building with 32 levels, containing the public accesses, VIP boxes and complementary services. FCC also built a space with 94 boxes in the lower area of the high grandstand.

The stadium's roof deserves special mention. It is built with a steel structure of some 6,336 tonnes, tensioned with radial tables and connected with a membrane that occupies an area of 83,053 square metres. The membrane consists of 720 PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) panels weighing 92 tonnes. The roof covers the grandstand and ensures that 96% of the seats are protected from rain. It forms a special and differentiating element from the rest of European sports installations designed in recent years.

The numbers dealt with by FCC Group are surprising in their magnitude. More than 2,881 workers took part in the project. To make the stadium possible, it required 455,000 tonnes of concrete and seven tower cranes to carry 4,200 square metres of glass.

The new stadium is the first in the world to be lit entirely by LED technology, transforming the skyline of the city of Madrid. More than 16 million colours will be projected in each game. Without doubt, this is a project that represents a modern, functional and first rate venue when compared to other stadiums in Europe and even the world.

A leader among sports installations

FCC has built more than 25 major installations throughout the world that have housed some of the main sports events in disciplines such as football, tennis, motorcycling and athletics. These are cutting-edge, sustainable and functional venues in which FCC Construcción has added value with its technical and human capability to overcome major challenges. Efficiency, innovative solutions and the use of the most modern technology have been guarantees for success, demonstrating that the company is a leader in this field.