The latest details and images released by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and Lend Lease today show the significant progress being made on the construction of the Olympic Village with the foundations of several buildings complete and structural work now underway on the ground-floor level of the first residential buildings.
The Olympic Village, which lies adjacent to the Olympic Park and Stratford City sites, will accommodate athletes during the Olympic and Paralympic Games and will leave the legacy of thousands of new homes after 2012.
ODA Chief Executive David Higgins said:
'The Olympic Village will be one of the strongest legacies from the Games and these images show the progress we are making on site, keeping us on track to deliver quality new homes for Londoners together with new parks, public squares and community facilities.
'Our discussions on the funding of the Village are continuing and in the meantime the acceleration of activity on site will help maintain the momentum of this huge project.'
Lend Lease Europe Chief Executive Daniel Labbad added:
'We’re delighted to be unveiling these new images which demonstrate the substantial progress being made onsite. We remain committed to delivering a world-class development of high architectural and design integrity, both as a home for athletes in 2012 and as an iconic sustainable community beyond.'
Construction work on the Olympic Village started in May last year and the project has already become one of the busiest construction sites in London with more than 570 workers on site. The Village will comprise 11 residential blocks, each made up of approximately five to seven buildings, and progress on construction work over the last six months includes:
- The start of work on the ‘super-structure’ of the Village, with the first above-ground vertical columns being constructed that will form the ground-floor level of the first residential buildings
- Piling works complete to form foundations on 28 buildings (four blocks) of the Village – over 2000 concrete piles installed more than 20 metres deep
- First two tower cranes, erected on site – 22 tower cranes in total will be in place by summer 2009
- Seven electricity pylons removed across the Village site, unlocking the area for the vertical build of new apartments and facilities
- Infrastructure works well underway to create new links between the Olympic Village development and surrounding community - two major railway bridges lifted into place and nearly a quarter of a mile of railway line covered in a concrete tunnel allowing access across the Village site from north to south
- Work underway to install new electricity, gas, water, drainage and district heating services between the sites of the new housing blocks
- Construction of new railway sidings complete to allow materials to be brought in to site by rail along with a new concrete batching plant on site, helping reduce the volume of traffic on local roads
- Leading architects secured to design all blocks of Olympic Village
- Planning permission secured for the first four residential schemes, with favourable comments received about the high level of architectural quality
- More than 750,000 hours of construction work completed on site with no reportable accidents
- Construction work being delivered with excellent sustainability standards – gas generators now installed on site to generate power for the construction work on site, greatly reducing carbon dioxide emissions
The Olympic Village will accommodate athletes during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. After 2012, it will leave the legacy of new homes, many of which will be affordable, together with new parks, public squares and open space; an Academy education campus for all ages; multi-use community facilities; and new infrastructure to connect the new communities with the Olympic Park, one of the largest new urban parks in Europe for 150 years.
Notes to editors:
1. The latest design image of the Olympic Village and photos of construction work on the Olympic Village site can be downloaded from
http://mm.gettyimages.com/mm/nicePath/locog?nav=pr120301088– Ends –
The construction of the venues and infrastructure of the London 2012 Games is funded by the National Lottery through the Olympic Lottery Distributor, The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Mayor of London and the London Development Agency.
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