Rome-based contractor Webuild has signed a partnership with Bologna football club to renovate the Renato Dall’Ara stadium, built in 1927.
The €200m project will demolish and rebuild all the stands, add a shell-shaped polycarbonate roof, and remove metal structures added during the Italia ’90 World Cup Finals to expose the ground’s brick arcades.
The reconstruction designed by Gino Zavanella of Roman architect Gau Arena will shrink the ground’s capacity from 31,000 to about 27,000, but the stands will be nearer to the action, beginning about 7.5m from the pitch edge instead of 18m now.
The more compact layout will create about 3.5ha of space for new amenities like the Bologna FC museum.
Bologna FC will play home matches in a temporary ground in east Bologna while work on the Dall’Ara is underway.
The initiative is part of a public-private partnership developed by Bologna FC and financed by the municipality of Bologna, which owns the ground, and the Saputo family, who own the club.
Webuild notes in its press release that it has worked on nine stadiums, including Milan’s San Siro and the Olympic Stadium in Rome. For the 2022 World Cup Finals, it built the Al Bayt Stadium in Qatar, and also built a rugby stadium in L’Aquila, Italy, and sports complexes in Chiang Mai and South Songkla in Thailand.
- Subscribe here to get stories about construction around the world in your inbox three times a week
Further reading:
