Olympic Stadium begins to rise out of the ground

Over 100 columns, each five meters tall, have already been constructed and act as the support for the podium of the Stadium’s west and south stands. This also forms the lower ground floor of the west stand which houses the athletes' changing rooms, a 60 metre long call track and other back of house facilities such as doping control and treatment rooms.

The work to create the foundations for the Olympic Stadium is also nearing completion with over 3,500 of the 4,000 permanent piles already installed.

ODA Chairman John Armitt said: 'As the eyes of the world turn from Beijing to London, they will see that real progress is being made to create the new venues and infrastructure for the 2012 Games.

'As these new images show, the Olympic Stadium is already beginning to rise out of the ground and over the coming months, we will begin to see the size and scale of this flagship venue. There is still a long way to go and we are not complacent about the challenges ahead, but we have made a strong start out of the blocks.'

In May this year, construction started on the Stadium site three months earlier than originally planned and was witnessed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Eight tower cranes, each between 48 and 60 meters high, have also now all been erected in the Stadium ‘bowl’ for the concrete work and steel and roof erection.

The work is also now underway on the abutments that support the first of the five pedestrian footbridges over waterways that surround the Stadium site. During the Games the bridge will be one of the main connections for spectators to and from the Stadium to the east of the Olympic Park.

A pre-cast concrete batching plant has been set up on the south part of the Olympic Stadium site to cast almost 200 rakers, the concrete structures that will support the seating units for the lower 25,000 permanent seats. The concrete will be supplied from the batching plant on the Olympic Park site which will reduce vehicle movements in the local area.

Notes to editors:

1. Pictures of the columns and time-lapse footage of their construction can be downloaded from: http://mm.gettyimages.com/mm/nicePath/locog?nav=pr115988839

2. Olympic Stadium facts & figures:

- Over 1,000 construction workers will be based on the Stadium site
- 33 buildings on the Olympic Stadium site have been demolished
- Over 800,000 tonnes of soil has been taken away to help create the construction platform for the Stadium - enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall nine times over
- The Stadium is highly sustainable, containing around 10,000 tonnes of steel - the lightest Olympic Stadium to date
- The total Stadium island site covers an area of 40 acres - five times the size of the Houses of Parliament
- The Stadium is 53m high - taller than Nelson’s Column (50m)
- The Stadium roof covers an area of 24,500 sq metres - the equivalent to three and a half football pitches.