As London has been chosen to host the 2012 Games, selected students from our school were chosen to go and see what will soon be the Olympic Park where the Games will take place.
Us - Philippa and Zahra:
We went to the Olympic Park and saw some work being done. We were shown on a map were everything was going to be built. We drove around the site in a minibus and a tour guide told us lots of facts about the site and what will happen to the area after it has been used for the Games.
Many parts of the site are going to be made public and local people can use them as fantastic facilities to train and have fun. During the Games the participants are able to stay in little houses that are going to be built in a special place in the Park and when the Games are over then that area will be made public.
The site is still being cleared for the ‘Big Build’ and should be ready for building during 2008. To build the Olympic Park they are going to have to knock down a lot of buildings to build on. Many have already been knocked down or taken down and some of the bricks are going to be recycled so most of the Park will be made from recycled materials and the bricks that can't be used will be sent to other countries where they can be used, for example one of the buildings went to Tanzania.
Before they can start to build anything, all the soil has to be cleaned because some parts of the soil was contaminated and has to be washed in a big machine at 500 degrees, and then the soil is filtered to make it fine and easier to use - the soil became almost like sand whilst other unfiltered parts were just rubble.
The venues that will be inside the Park include the Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Centre and a BMX circuit plus all the footbridges and walkways.
We had a great time and are looking forward to seeing the actual build in 2012 and when we do we will be able to compare it to what we saw. We think that other schools should be able to go to the site before they finish it in 2012.
