While the world’s sports stars will have to wait another three years in order to shine at Latin America’s first edition of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, a whole army of various professionals is getting the city ready to receive the illustrious visitors with a red carpet and open arms. During the Games, one of Brazil’s greatest ongoing urban projects, the revitalisation of Rio de Janeiro’s port area, will receive the Media and Referees Villages, a Conventions Centre and two hotels with 500 rooms each. It follows the chronogram that will turn this empty, undervalued area into a magnet for new business ventures.

On March 1st, one of the flagships of the ongoing cultural transformation in the port area will be inaugurated. The Rio Museum of Art (MAR) intends to tell the city’s history through the arts; it will host a permanent collection and short and long-term temporary exhibitions of both national and international artists. The museum will be housed in two different buildings connected by a footbridge: the Dom João VI Royal Mansion, dating from the beginning of last century, and a modernist building that will host the Escola do Olhar (literally, School of Vision). Around 270 workers are putting the finishing touches to the construction, which may receive around 200 thousand visitors a year.

“I was impressed by the number of construction sites in the port area. It has all the right things to become one of Rio’s most beautiful regions and being a part of it all is a great honour. As soon as it is ready, I will bring all my family to visit the museum”, says Élcio Luís Maciel, 42, who is in charge of placing Formica. “The city will become even more marvellous than it already is. Our sons will be even prouder to say ‘I’m carioca’”, agreed Everaldo Costa Mendes, 39, who also works putting the finishing touches to MAR.

The Museum of Tomorrow will be the region’s other star. Works, both on Mauá Pier’s structural reinforcement and the museum’s building foundations, started in December 2011 and have now reached their final stage. With no scheduled inauguration date so far, the building, in the best high tech style, will be dedicated to the planet’s sustainable development.

The Museum of Tomorrow will be dedicated to the planet’s sustainable development (Photo: Rio 2016™/Alex Ferro)

Spanish inspiration

The ongoing changes in the Port Area were directly inspired by the Barcelona Games project. In the Spanish city, old warehouses and port structures were converted into boulevards and new buildings that housed the athletes. In Rio de Janeiro, the Olympic Village is being built in Barra, but the demolition of a huge structure is something the two cities have in common.

In Rio de Janeiro, the Perimetral Viaduct still cuts the view of Guanabara Bay but, in Barcelona, it was a railway line that obstructed the sea view. The Spanish city created a tunnel for trains to pass, which did not damage the seascape. Rio is also digging a tunnel for the traffic to flow once the Viaduct is demolished, in the second half of 2013 according to plan.

In its place, two superposed tunnels will be built, an unprecedented project in the city. The 1,800 metres long Binary Tunnel, will start near the Naval and Oceanographic Museum. It will pass under the São Bento Monastery and Mauá Square, ending between Port Warehouses 4 and 5. The Express Highway Tunnel will pass underneath the Binary Tunnel right under São Bento Hill. The Binary Tunnel will be 14 metres deep and the Express Highway Tunnel 25 metres deep.

As cargo handling assistant at the Binary Tunnel site, Wellington Luciano, goes down 40 metres in order to work, the equivalent of a 13-storey building. “This is the first time I am working in a big construction site. It is a huge construction that affects the whole city. I am a happy carioca because I can assume such a responsibility, which makes me very proud”, said the 30 years old worker.

Included among the main works in the port area are: the construction of 4km of tunnels, the reurbanisation of 70km of ways and 650,000m2 of footpaths, the reconstruction of 700km of urban infrastructure network (water, sewage, and drainage), the creation of 17km of bicycle paths, the planting of 15 thousand trees (the increase in green areas will jump from 2.46% to 10.96%), the construction of three new sewage treatment plants, the renovation of the old houses, paving and lighting on Conceição Hill, as well as the restoration of São Francisco da Prainha Church, dating from 1696, one of Rio’s oldest, which remains closed by Civil Defence since 2004 pending conservation issues.