Work resumes at World Cup stadium in Brazil

Published Dec. 18, 2013 10:51 p.m. ET

foxsports

A labor court has allowed construction to resume at the World Cup stadium where a man fell 115 feet to his death while working on a roofing structure in the jungle city of Manaus.

Construction in all areas where workers had to be high above the ground was halted Sunday, a day after the second worker's death at the Arena Amazonia. The stadium will host four World Cup matches next June, including England vs. Italy and the United States vs. Portugal.

Labor officials inspected the venue Monday and Tuesday and said constructors showed that all measures were in place to guarantee workers' safety.

The judge who cleared the site said, however, that work at the roof can only take place during the day. The accident that killed the 22-year-old worker happened at about 4 a.m. local time, during the night shift. The causes remain under investigation.

The roof is meant to resemble snake scales after all diamond shaped panels are installed at the 42-000 capacity stadium.

Local World Cup organizers said they are still trying to determine how much the work stoppage will delay the stadium's delivery.

''Now we will meet with (constructor) Andrade Gutierrez to recreate the timetable and reprogram what still needs to be done and determine new deadlines,'' local World Cup coordinator Miguel Capobiango Neto said in a statement.

The Arena Amazonia is one of the six venues that will not be delivered by the end of the year as wanted by FIFA, although construction at the site was 93 percent completed when the accident happened. Organizers hoped to have it ready in mid-January, when the first test event is scheduled to take place with about 10,000 workers who participated in the stadium's construction serving as spectators.

Nearly 2,000 laborers are currently at the construction site to try to finish the work.

The first death at the Arena Amazonia happened in March. A few hours after Saturday's accident, another worker died of a heart attack while paving an area outside the venue.

In late November, two workers were killed when a crane collapsed while hoisting a 500-ton piece of roofing at the stadium that will host the World Cup opener in Sao Paulo on June 12. Last year, a worker died at the construction site of the stadium in the nation's capital, Brasilia. Another worker died in April at the new Palmeiras stadium, which may be used for teams training in Sao Paulo.

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