Work On 2012 Olympic Stadium Begins
Construction on the £496m Olympic Stadium for the London 2012 Games has begun, three months ahead of schedule.
The 80,000-seat stadium in Stratford, east London, will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Games, as well as the athletics events.
The construction work coincides with the end of a three-day visit by the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) monitoring team.
The building operation was due to start in August but work to clear the site in Lea Valley progressed more quickly than expected.
The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) said 800,000 tonnes of contaminated soil had been removed since clearing began in July 2007.
The first phase of construction will see 4,000 concrete columns inserted into the soil to form the permanent foundations for the stadium structure.
Building firm Sir Robert McAlpine will then install floor slabs, lower tier structures and columns to support the pedestrian concourse level.
Early next year, the erection of steel structures to support the stadium roof will start.
The stadium is due for completion in 2011 and once the Olympics are over it will become a 25,000-seat community venue.
Additional plans could see the stadium become home to a lower league football or rugby club post-2012.
Construction work on the athletes’ village which will be built along side the Olympic Stadium is scheduled to start next month with only one firm, Australian constructor Lend Lease, bidding to build the village in what the ODA admitted was a ‘challenging’ global economic climate which made agreeing a final contract more difficult.
