CEMEX play key role in new baseball venue

Company supplies 70,000 cubic metres of concrete for iconic ‘Alfredo Harp Helú’ stadium in Mexico City

CEMEX have played a key role in the construction of the ‘Alfredo Harp Helú’ baseball stadium in Mexico City. This new sports venue has the capacity for more than 20,000 spectators and is home to Mexico’s Red Devils baseball team.

The new stadium, which is considered one of Mexico’s most avant-garde sports facilities, complies with demanding technological, environmental and aesthetic requirements to host matches from the Mexican Baseball League and other professional leagues.

It features a vast translucent roof that covers the large central lobby, with its outstanding stalls and commercial areas. To support the structure, including a steel skeleton weighing from 500 to 1,000 tonnes per module, six CEMEX concrete supporting bases that simulated pre-Hispanic pyramids were constructed.

‘The use of high-strength concrete allowed us to have more slender structures, which at the same time bear more weight,’ explained Alicia Andonegui, director of operations and maintenance at the ‘Alfredo Harp Helú’ stadium.

CEMEX Fortis concrete was used to facilitate the assembly of the metal structure, whilst CEMEX Promptis concrete technology achieved high strength and rapid hardening at an early age, thereby allowing early de-molding.

The project’s environmental impact was reduced thanks to the benefits of CEMEX Eco concrete, which is made from recycled material. In addition, the use of CEMEX Architectural Aparentia concrete provided the required aesthetic finishes.

‘We determined that the stadium’s design featured densely packed steel reinforcement, which would make it difficult to compact the concrete through conventional means, so we proposed the use of CEMEX’s Evolution self-compacting concrete,’ said Luis Franco, vice-president of builder sales for CEMEX Mexico.

‘Thanks to this concrete solution, we maintained the pace of work, met quality standards, optimized working capital, and achieved desired finishes,’ he added.

Surrounded by other sports and entertainment venues, the ‘Alfredo Harp Helú’ stadium is the only one to be built in Mexico’s capital in the last 50 years. Consequently, access to the work site was difficult during the construction phase and days of simultaneous events.

‘This is why CEMEX designed a special pumping system for the work, with an underground pipe path that passes the other enclosures, without affecting the concrete’s fresh, hardened and workability properties,’ said Alicia Andonegui.

To deliver the project’s 70,000 cubic meters of concrete at the required times and in the required quantities, two production shifts were established at the three closest CEMEX concrete plants.