The National Athletics Centre in Budapest is in the running for the 2023 Stadium of the Year title

World-class facility completed in just 28 months

Construction of the National Athletics Centre began in November 2020. One of the most spectacular events during the first phase of the works was the demolition of the nearly 60-metre-high VITUKI tower on the site, which was carried out by Magyar Építők video. The fast-paced construction work then continued with the monolithic structural works, which were completed by the specialists in June 2021.

Hundreds of tonnes of diamonds

The steel structure of the stadium, which is a very impressive sight, began to be lifted into place the following month with the construction of 48 diamond shells 28 metres high.

The structures, each weighing around 100 tonnes and assembled on site, were transported to the special crawler crane by an SPMT vehicle specially designed for transporting large goods.

This lifted parts of the roof structure into place. The steel and cable structure was completed in just four and a half months. Construction continued with the membrane roofing, with the 27,000 square metres of surface area completed in September 2022. The following month, the building reached its highest point, and the 168-metre-long pedestrian bridge that provided access between the training pitches on the Csepel Islands and the stadium was inaugurated on the same day as the bushwalking ceremony.

The Budapest world event broke several records

The technical handover of the project started in March 2023. After the sound and lighting tests in May, the stadium was inaugurated on 17 June, after nine days of competition between the world's best athletes.

The Budapest World Cup broke several records, with 404,000 tickets sold for the competitions and 2,100 athletes competing in the various events, also a new record. In addition to the huge number of spectators at the venue, a new record was set with more than one billion viewers. The official website of the World Championships received 14 million hits per hour, pushing Budapest into second place behind London 2017, which was considered the most successful World Athletics Championships ever.

The domestic construction industry performed at world class

One of the most significant construction projects in recent decades was the Építési és Közlekedési Minisztérium project, with ZÁÉV Zrt. and Magyar Építő Zrt. carrying out the generator construction. The project was executed by a consortium of Főber Zrt. and Óbuda-Újlak Zrt., with NAPUR Architect Kft. as the general contractor and NAPUR Architect Kft. as the technical contractor. The design, fabrication and erection of the central structure of the building and the erection of the steel cable support structure were carried out by KÉSZ Metaltech Kft. and KÉSZ Ipari Gyártó Kft., as part of KÉSZ Csoport. The design, fabrication and installation of the steel and cable-roof structure was carried out by the group's strategic partner bim.GROUP. The Robinson Bridge, which was built next to the NAK, was built by Hídépítő Zrt. as a subcontractor of the consortium, based on the designs of Speciálterv Kft.. Mészáros és Mészáros Kft., V-Híd Zrt., WHB Elektro Kft., Zala Elektro Kft., CLH Hűtés- és Klímatechnikai Kft., Kanizsai Magasépítéstő Kft., Graboplan Kft., Épszerk-Pannónia Invest Építőipari Kft., Bayer Construct Zrt., Gedi Construction Ltd. and PBM Mélyépítő Kft. were the main subcontractors.