Four Linden Comansa tower cranes are at the renovation site of the legendary Maracan? stadium.

If there was a poll about the world?s most famous sport venue among football/soccer fans, or even among general sports fans, very few would name the Jornalista M?rio Filho stadium. But Maracan? would be in first place on that list without any doubt; Maracana is the name by which this stadium at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is popularly known.

Maracan? was built for the FIFA 1950 World Cup, where it hosted both the opening and closing games. For many years, it has been the sports venue with higher capacity, up to 200,000 people, and nowadays is under renovations to host again another FIFA World Cup in 2014, and also the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2016 Olympic Games.

The project belongs to EMOP ? Empresa de Obras P?blicas do Estado do Rio de Janeiro ? and Secretary of Works, and is executed by Cons?rcio Maracan? Rio 2014. This consortium, formed by construction companies Odebrecht Infraestrutura and Andrade Gutierrez, relies on four 21 LC 400 tower cranes from Spanish manufacturer Linden Comansa. The cranes, with maximum load capacity of 18 tonne, have been erected with jib length of 70 m, which allows them to reach the entire jobsite. Their most important task up to now is mounting the metal structures of the tiers of seats, although soon they will be helping on the assembly of the steel cables of the ceiling, which will cover 96 per cent of all seats.

Due to Linden Comansa?s modular system and the flattop design, the cranes have been erected with a difference on height of only 5.5 m, in other words, one mast section, which supposes an important saving in costs of erection and disassembly of the cranes. Thus, the lowest crane has been erected at a freestanding height of 36.3 m, whereas the highest has been erected at a height of 52.8 m.

The four tower cranes are part of the fleet of rental Roll-Lift Latin America, formed after the acquisition of Rino Movimento de Cargas by Dutch company Roll-Lift. Nowadays Roll-Lift Latin America has more than 130 employees among Brazil and Uruguay, where it provides services in projects where cargo handling and heavy transport are necessary.

The new Maracan? stadium, which will have capacity for almost 79,000 spectators, should be finished by February 2013, four months before hosting its first competition, the FIFA Confederations Cup.