China Industry Network reporter E Fan
From September 2017 to the present, China Railway Construction International Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as CRCC International) Lussell Stadium Project Engineering Assistant and Engineer Shang Zhonghe has only sent less than ten moments of friends, this master's student is a post-80s young man who joined CRCC International just after graduation and was sent to Qatar just after completing a short induction training, in these 5 years with colleagues and thousands of Chinese workers after a "hard battle", finally "China Built" The main venue of the Qatar World Cup, the Lusail Stadium, has become the "world's top".
Recently, several young employees who played the wonderful chapter of "Built in China" were interviewed by Chinagong.com, telling the little-known story of the construction of Lusell Stadium.
Part of the participants in the construction of the railway construction international Lusail stadium project. (Photo courtesy of Lee Wende)
2118 days, the first time for Chinese enterprises
In November 2016, a joint venture formed by CRCC International and Qatar's HBK won the general contracting contract for the Lusell Stadium project from 11 bidders from 9 countries around the world, and since then, the two parties have jointly implemented the project with 110 large subcontractors and more than 7,000 Chinese and foreign builders in more than 20 countries around the world, including Italy and Australia.
This is the first time that a Chinese enterprise has participated in the construction of the main venue of the World Cup as a general contractor for design and construction.
Chinese elements, Chinese technology, Chinese equipment, and Chinese-funded enterprises are the main body of the implementation of the Lusail Stadium project, according to Shang Zhonghe, the number of Chinese construction personnel reached about 1,200 at its peak, including about 40 members of the management team of CRCC International, and more than 1,000 subcontracted technicians and workers.
Shang Zhonghe, born in 1988, almost stepped out of the gate of campus and ushered in the first big project of his career. After graduating in July 2017, he flew from Beijing to Qatar in early September after receiving more than a month of induction training at CRCC's international and domestic headquarters, joining the Lucel project team.
Li Wende, an engineer in the project control department of the Lucel Stadium of CRCC International, who is six years younger than Shang Zhonghe, first interned at the domestic headquarters for half a year after graduating in 2016, and joined the Lucel Stadium project in March of the following year. It was the first project I was involved in, and I felt very honored that many people would probably not be able to participate in such a large-scale project in the world for the rest of their lives. ”
The importance of the Lusail Stadium project was evident from the very beginning of construction. Qatar, which covers an area of just 11,500 square kilometers and has a permanent population of only about 3 million people, has always been keen to raise the country's image by hosting sporting events. Qatar has made many efforts to successfully host the World Cup, including the construction of one of the largest main stadiums, the Lusail Stadium. Therefore, the Lusail Stadium project is also known as Qatar's "No. 1 project".
After 2,118 days of painstaking construction, the Lusail Stadium immediately attracted worldwide attention after its successful delivery. With a construction area of 195,000 square meters and a capacity of 92,000 spectators, the Lusail Stadium has been called the "big golden bowl" by netizens because of its glittering and bright shape. After the opening of the Qatar World Cup, foreign media and overseas netizens were even more enthusiastic about the "Chinese construction" in the World Cup, and everyone praised the Lusell Stadium, calling it the "crown jewel" of the Qatar World Cup.
On September 30, 2021, the roof membrane structure of the last unit of the Lusail Stadium, the main stadium of the World Cup in Qatar, was installed in place, and the main project of the main venue of the World Cup undertaken by a Chinese enterprise for the first time was completed. (Photo courtesy of CRCC)
Everyone has a heavy burden on them
Inspired by traditional Arabic enamel checks, the design of the Lusail Stadium resembles a golden bowl filled with dates, with the façade curved from top to bottom. Such a hyperboloid exterior curtain wall puts forward new requirements for construction technology. It must be designed and built to the highest FIFA standards, while meeting FIFA standards, European and American norms and local Qatari codes.
Such high standards of requirements have brought pressure and challenges to everyone involved. Ren Lei, who has extensive experience in the electronics, mining and construction industries, joined the Lucel Stadium project team on February 28, 2017, and when the company explained the challenges of joining the project and asked for his personal opinion, although he was excited, but also a little nervous, and worried, he decided to accept the challenge and immediately began to prepare from the ideological and business aspects.
"I told myself that in addition to doing my job well, I must show the style of contemporary Chinese builders! In terms of business, I focused on how to work in overseas joint ventures. Ren Lei, material manager and participant of the railway construction international Lusail Stadium project, said.
He Xiaobo, who graduated in the same year as Li Wende, was participating in his first project in Saudi Arabia, and the project had just entered the final stage, and He Xiaobo went from Saudi Arabia to Qatar before he had time to rest, and joined the Lusail Stadium project team in November 2017. As a project engineer of Lusail Stadium, he is mainly responsible for the construction of concrete structure, steel structure, eaves and curtain wall structure, and in his spare time, he spends his time on business improvement, not only completing the paper "2022 World Cup Main Stadium Large Steel Component Lifting High-altitude Docking Technology" with colleagues, but also independently published the paper "Lusail Stadium Steel Structure V-Column Construction Technology".
At that time, going to work during the day and studying at least three hours at night and being on call became the norm for everyone.
"When I joined the team, I felt like everyone was burdened with a thousand weights, and everyone exuded a determination to win from the inside out." Fan Jianbo, project engineer of CRCC International Lucer's Stadium, joined the Lucerdale Stadium project team on December 23, 2018, when the leader told him that the project schedule was very stressful, which was related to the reputation of Chinese enterprises and was a task that must be completed.
Participants in the Lucel Stadium project on the construction site. (Photo courtesy of Lee Wende)
Under the epidemic, it is also necessary to "special affairs", and many participants have lost their hair wildly
In order to ensure that the Lusail Stadium was completed as scheduled, the project team has been adhering to the "two-shift" working mechanism, from 6 am to 5 pm during the day shift and from 6 pm to 5 am on the night shift, with an hour of meal time when the two shifts are handed over.
"This project had to be delivered on time, and we all knew there was no way back, so whatever difficulties we encountered had to be overcome." Zhang Jian, BIM engineer of the railway construction international Lusail stadium project, said.
Shang Zhonghe, Li Wende, Ren Lei, He Xiaobo, Fan Jianbo, Zhang Jian, although their management team members are on the day shift most of the time, but in fact, their working hours are not fixed, any night shift colleagues can not deal with the problem, or encounter major matters, night shift colleagues will call them as soon as possible, and as the Chinese representative, they must also answer the phone as soon as possible and rush to the scene to deal with the problem.
"At that time, many colleagues slept very lightly, for fear of missing important calls and delaying the progress of work." Shang Zhonghe recalled that during that time, many colleagues also lost their hair particularly badly.
The participants of the Lusail Stadium are also open almost all year round. Although every Friday is a "nominal" rest day, but basically all people have not given themselves a holiday, when everyone is tired and can't bear it, they will also take shifts to the site to stare, 2019 and 2020 are in the most difficult period of construction, so in the Chinese New Year's Eve of 2019, Chinese construction participants only gave themselves half a day off; In the Chinese New Year's Eve of 2020, everyone only gave themselves two hours off.
At the beginning of 2020, the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic soon affected the normal production and life in Qatar, and in mid-March, the Qatari government announced that it would implement a series of "lockdown" measures to prevent the further spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic. Lusail Stadium is located in Lusail New City, 20 kilometers from the center of Doha, the capital of Qatar, during that time, Doha was closed for about a month, except for supermarkets, hospitals and other livelihood protection places, other places were closed, almost all units were required to work from home, only a few key projects to continue construction, and Lusell Stadium has become one of the "special affairs" projects.
Commemorative banknotes and banknotes with the pattern of the Lussell Stadium. (Photo courtesy of Lee Wende)
In the end, the participants lived up to expectations and delivered on schedule. The Lussell Stadium, Qatar's "national calling card", also appeared twice on the Qatari currency. The new Qatari 10 riyal banknote issued in December 2020 and the special edition commemorative banknote for the World Cup launched by the Central Bank of Qatar in November 2022 feature the Lusail Stadium motif.
These days, the Qatar World Cup is in full swing, however, Shang Zhonghe and his colleagues don't have much time to enjoy the event. They have also invested in the construction of new community infrastructure renovation projects around the Lusail Stadium and continue to contribute to the modernization of the new city of Lucel.