Poor maintenance seen behind OAKA stadium’s structural woes
The structural problems of the iconic arched roof that prompted the closure of the Athens Olympic Stadium do not stem from its design – by award-winning Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava – or construction but are due to maintenance issues, according to the technical study that highlighted the issues.
Commissioned by Greek privatization agency TAIPED, which is responsible for the facility, the study by a consortium of three companies also confirmed concerns expressed in an earlier report, in 2020, which had also been commissioned as part of plans to revamp the facility.
That study had reported a number of issues, including with a stand in the main stadium that started swaying during a big soccer match in 2019, while it also pinpointed structural faults in the arches.
Experts who worked on the construction of the stadium, meanwhile, told Kathimerini that a detailed maintenance handbook had been handed over to the authorities regarding the arches after the project was delivered, but that these instructions were not followed as they were deemed too costly.
The consortium’s findings are being cross-checked by the Technical Chamber of Greece.
