Work on World Cup stadium halted by construction worker’s death

Work at Sao Paulo’s Itaquerao Stadium was halted on Monday by order of Sao Paulo’s labor secretariat following the death of a construction worker on Saturday, the third fatality at the project.

Construction on stadiums and other venues for this summer’s World Cup in Brazil continues to be plagued by corruption, delays and safety concerns just 2 1/2 months from the June 12 opener in Sao Paulo.

The worker, Fabio Hamilton da Cruz, fell about 26 feet while working on the installation of temporary seats on Saturday when, apparently, he didn’t connect himself to a safety cable in a rush to finish for the day. Itaquerao is one of the projects that remains well behind schedule.

Fast Engenharia, the construction company in charge of installing the seats, said in a statement it would analyze the demands of the labor officials and then determine the effect on the construction timetable.

The Itaquerao, one of six stadiums that did not meet FIFA’s Dec. 31 deadline, was expected to be ready in April. But recently FIFA, organizer of the tournament, said it didn’t think work at the the stadium would be complete until the middle of next month.