As World Cup fever engulfs the country, work is still ongoing to prepare the nation for its next major sporting event, the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with Line 4 seen as a crucial project to ensure the smooth running for these Games in two years' time.

The new line, scheduled to start operating in 2016, will link Barra da Tijuca - the large neighbourhood in the west of Rio that will host the Olympic Park - with Ipanema in the south zone, providing easy connections onwards to Copacabana, the city centre and north zone.

Construction has been suspended in recent weeks on the tunnel between Ipanema and Gávea due to the appearance of a crater on Rua Barao da Torre caused by the fracturing of a rock leading to decompression of the land.

The incident occurred on May 11 with construction workers indicating that work would be suspended on the tunnel for around 60 days while the problem was rectified.

With problems disrupting work in the south zone, construction continues in the west with tracks being laid in the tunnel that links Barra with São Conrado.

This tunnel is the largest in the world to be dug through rock to link two metro stations and is expected to see another 300m of track laid each week.

Workers have laid 400m of track in the Barra-São Conrado tunnel with another 300m expected to be laid each week ©Rio State Government/Marcelo Horn



More than 1,100 sections of track, each 18m long and weighing more than a tonne, will be used to complete the tracks in the Barra-São Conrado tunnel.

Once completed, the Line 4 metro service will total 16 kilometres in length and include six new stations, Jardim Oceânico, São Conrado, Gávea, Antero de Quental, Jardim de Alah and Nossa Senhora da Paz.

These stations will be integrated with the existing Line 1 and Line 2 services.

Construction of the line started in June 2010 and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2016.

Once open it is thought the line will carry more than 300,000 people a day and take around 2,000 vehicles off busy roads at peak times.

Rio 2016 has said the line will enable passengers to travel from Barra to Ipanema in 15 minutes and from Barra to the city centre in 34 minutes.

The estimated cost of the project sits at BRL$8.79 billion (£2.32 billion/$3.94 billion/€2.90 billion)

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