London 2012 blog

Our latest aerial images released yesterday show some big changes on two of the venues, the Olympic Stadium and the Aquatics Centre.

Olympic Stadium site April 2007

This view shows the Stadium island site three months before the land was handed over to the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) for the start of demolition:



Olympic Stadium site June 2008

And just under a year on from the start of demolition this same view of Stadium site shows a completely different scene. Construction has been underway since May and three large tower cranes now dominate the skyline:

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I had to go to school at 8.00am today!!! Not for lessons though, today was special, we had some very important people coming from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and Visa, who sponsor the Games, to talk to me, my friends and teachers about the Paralympic games being held in Beijing China and to plan the Paralympic handover celebrations for 2012.

Planning for handover celebrations with my classmates:



I won a competition to be the UK young news reporter and will be telling you all about the brilliant things I see at the Paralympic Games, the people I meet and the things I do during my stay in Beijing China.

Read more of “Winning the competition to be a reporter in Beijing!”

Today I visited the Olympic Park site for the start of work on the new London 2012 Aquatics Centre. I’m part of the Crystal Palace 2012 Olympic Fast Track Team so I was really excited to see the beginnings of where I hope to be competing in four years time.

With Seb Coe on the Aquatics Centre site:

Read more of “Excited about diving facilities coming to London”

I am the Director of a door manufacturing company in Port Talbot, Wales and last week ODA Chairman, John Armitt, LOCOG Chair, Seb Coe, and Chairman of the Nations and Regions Group, Charles Allen, came to visit us for a tour around our factory.

ODA Chairman, John Armitt (left), my colleagues and I (centre):



We manufacture, install and maintain all types of doors, barriers and gates, and specialise in anti-ram raid, anti-terrorist, blast, high security, ballistic, fire and acoustic doors.

Read more of “Winning a contract with London 2012”

I represented LOCOG at one of the ODA’s Olympic Park tours for MPs this morning. Getting the MPs all together at Stratford station was, well, a little tricky, but they were soon on the bus and in the Park, to see the building work first hand and at close range. 

But it’s only when you step back and view the whole Park (such as from the ODA’s 6th floor viewing flat, just outside the Park boundary) that you get a better feel for the size of the site, which is bigger than Hyde Park. From the balcony the MPs were understandably - and predictably – quite taken by the sheer scale of the project. All the areas we saw were teeming with builders and diggers all beavering away on the different venue sites. 

Read more of “MPs and The Lean Mean Green Machine”

Last Sunday was a great day down at the Rise festival in Finsbury Park - the sun was shining and we treated festival goers to a colourful Bollywood dance show. Ten of our group showcased a number of routines comprising traditional Bollywood dance moves as well eastern influenced techniques to our favourite tracks.

Read more of “Bollywood dancers shake it at the RISE Festival”

As part of the London Festival of Architecture we decided to take a canal boat tour, an opportunity to see one of London’s most interesting areas on water and to check on progress at the Olympic Park site. My interest in this trip was both professional and personal. I once lived close to Limehouse Basin (in a ridiculously expensive one-bedroom riverside apartment that I shared with two other impoverished students), I like boat trips (any excuse to be travelling on water) and I work in environmental planning, so the management and delivery of a project on the scale of the London 2012 Games fascinates me.

We assembled at Limehouse Basin on a sunny Saturday morning and were briefed by a man from British Waterways before climbing aboard. We chugged out of the basin at a snail’s pace, weighed down somewhat by the 60 or so passengers. I don’t think the boat had ever carried that many folk before.

Read more of “Canal boat tour and Olympic site visit”

No, the trains are no longer stopping at the Park. That’s because new railway sidings at Orient Way were delivered ahead of schedule this week and have freed up a large area within the Olympic Park known as Thornton’s Field.

Thornton’s Field

The Thornton’s Field railway sidings had been in operation for 80 years and were used to 'park' trains leaving Liverpool Street after the morning rush hour, while they weren't needed during off-peak times:



Park and ride

While the new sidings were being constructed, the rest of the Olympic Park was undergoing rapid change. In this picture you can see the trains, at rest after the morning rush hour, with the Olympic Stadium site in the background:



Orient Way

The new railway sidings that have replaced Thornton’s Field have been built at Orient Way, adjacent to the Lea Valley Line to the north of the Park:



Sustainable Games

In building the new 12-track railway sidings at Orient Way, over 3,250 yards of track was lifted and reused. This photograph was taken six months ago when the track laying for the new sidings had just started:



High voltage

During April the new overhead lines were being installed as the project kept ahead of schedule and budget:



Delivered

This week an event was held to officially mark the opening of the Orient Way sidings, which have been operational since June. Standing in front of the trains is Rail Minister Tom Harris and ODA Chairman John Armitt:

Last week I ventured to East Marsh with Celia, Head of Legal, to be involved in the ODA’s archaeology programme ‘discover’. I have been to East Marsh a number of times this year as we created homes for moths, worms, snails and beetles to live as part of the Olympic Park construction programme. The ecology has certainly come to life since my last visit.

Celia and I looking for creatures within a log wall at East Marsh:

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Lots of team days/events/things come and go and you find yourself thinking, here we go again. Our team building event at the weekend has quite happily changed my mind. We had temps to cover the reception, we had tickets and lots of energy and we were ready to go to St Pancras by 12 noon!

A pleasant journey up to be had gazing at some beautiful english countryside relaxed us nicely. We all got together in the evening for our team dinner to set out our plans for the next day and have a team ice breaker with some fun 'truth' questions put to us anonymously by others. This was a great way to see how team mates viewed each other.
Next day in the lobby and we were getting excited….time to go to Holme Pierrepoint in Nottingham which is home to the National Rafting Centre, a simple 15 minute taxi ride from the centre of town. Once we arrived, it was quite a quick process, get our wetsuits, get a quick briefing and off we go down the rapids! You go down the rapids 4 times but what we did not count on was having to get out at the bottom, carry our boat quite a distance back up the bank and then jumping in again and paddling all the way back to the start!

Read more of “Team of the Year 2008 - White water rafting”