Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology may have to consider downsizing the new National Stadium, a planned main venue for 2020 Olympic Games because of a great cost of construction that could reach as much as 300 billion yen, Minister Hakubun Shimomura said at the House of Counselors Budget Committee session on October 23. According to the Japan Sports Council (JSC), an operator of the facility, the original plan will be reviewed and turned into a plan more realistic and in higher degree of perfection by a joint venture of Nikken Sekkei, Azusa Sekkei, and Arup, who are commissioned to prepare a basic design.

A design by a British architect Zaha Hadid was selected through an international competition, which adopts arch-shaped structures and a streamline shape. It will be built with a retractable roof covering the area of about 11.3 ha At a cost of 133.8 billion yen. The total floor area is some 290,000 m2 and the capacity will be increased from 54,000 to 80,000.

The plan and the estimated cost are now examined in terms of increasing cost of labor and material that were not taken account of at the beginning and legal feasibility, a JSC official said.

Though the design was initially supposed to be completed by the end of fiscal 2014, the planning is now a month behind the schedule and there are concerns about affecting the further process.

The construction industry has been requesting that a design-build procedure is to be adopted in the process of construction in order to reduce the cost and the work period. JSC, however, maintained its attitude that it would award contracts of design and construction separately because change of the plan and the contracting process can result in further delay that could make it difficult to complete by March 2019. (2013/10/25)