One year on Olympic Stadium on track as internal work ramps up

LOCOG Chair Seb Coe said: 'The Olympic Stadium will become the heartbeat of the Olympic Park in 2012 and home to spectacular sport not just at Games time, but for years to come. It has been a fantastic effort to get us this far, but the future promises much more. A spectacular Olympic Games and Parlaympic Games in 2012 and when the Games have left town, we will have changed the map of east London for good, bringing a regenerated area and multi-sport facilities for both elite and community use – including track and field.'

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said:  'One year after the start of construction on the Olympic Park and we are on-track to deliver a spectacular Olympic Games whilst bringing much-needed jobs and skills to the east end. With work underway on all five of the major venues on the Olympic Park a new skyline is starting to appear across east London as venues like the Stadium and the Aquatics centre take shape.
 
'The Stadium itself has been designed not just for the Olympic and Paralympic Games but for generations to come, so that in the future the whole community will get to use it's incredible facilities - from top athletes to local school children and keep-fitters.'

Peter Rogers, Chief Executive of the London Development Agency, said: 'The Stadium will be the cornerstone of the Olympic Park site both in 2012 and for decades to come. We have been working closely with our Olympic partners to ensure a lasting sporting and educational legacy. This will be a living stadium with athletics at its core, housing a school with a strong sporting specialism, a National Skills Academy and a high performance sports training environment. All of this will provide a strong community focus for future generations.'

Chair of the Olympic Lottery Distributor Janet Paraskeva said: 'National Lottery players are making a major contribution to funding the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympics Games and it is great they can see the fantastic progress that is being made with the Stadium now really taking shape.'

The fit-out work will require:

• 15,000 sq m of plasterboard
• 140,000 blocks to create walls
• 11km of pipes for drainage
• 338km of power cables plus 33km of other data systems cabling
• 12km of ventilation ducts

Since last May, progress has included:

• More than 4,500 reinforced concrete columns have been installed into the ground, up to 20m deep, to provide the foundations to support the Stadium structure
• 12 of 28 steel sections of the roof compression truss have been lifted into place. Each weighs 85 tonne and is 15m high by 30m long
• 105 of 112 steel rakers have been fixed which act as the terracing supports to hold the 55,000 seats in the upper tiers
• 5,200 of 12,000 pre-cast concrete terracing units for the seating have been put in place
• 400 workers are currently working on site. This is set to increase to around 600 as the internal fit-out work increases and more electricians, brick-layers and plumbers are required.
• First permanent foot bridge lifted into place and work on the abutments of the other four bridges underway

Work has now also begun on the internal fit-out of the Stadium, with the space below the podium level being split into 700 rooms and areas that are needed to create a fully-operational venue. This will include eight changing rooms and the 82m indoor warmup track in the West Stand that will be used by athletes.

Notes to editors

1. Download before and after images of the Olympic Stadium:
http://mm.gettyimages.com/mm/nicePath/locog?nav=pr124629014

2. Watch the latest video blog of the Olympic Stadium:
http://www.london2012.com/blog/2009/05/22/olympic-stadium-one-year-on.php

3. Download ‘on track’, a document showing the progress on the Stadium site:
http://www.london2012.com/documents/oda-publications/on-track-stadium-anniversary.pdf

5.    Olympic Stadium facts & figures:

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 m - the equivalent to three and a half football pitches.

6.    The Team Stadium Consortium consists of:

• Construction Contractor - Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd
• Architect and sport venue design – Populous, formerly HOK Sport Ltd
• Structural and building services engineer - Buro Happold
• Landscape architect - HED
• Planning consultant - Savills Hepher Dixon

7.    Projects they have worked on include the Arsenal Stadium (Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd, HOK Sport, Buro Happold) and the main Stadium for the Sydney Games (HOK Sport).

8.    The Stadium timeline:

• July 2006: Search starts for build and design team
• Oct 2006: Negotiations begin with Team Stadium
• Feb 2007: Olympic Board gives statement on legacy
• July 2007: Demolition starts on Olympic Stadium site
• July 2007: MOU signed with Team Stadium
• November 2007: Concept designs launched
• December 2007: Stadium site clearance completes
• March 2008: Sub-structure planning application given approval
• April 2008: Contract signed and Team Stadium take over site
• May 2008: Construction starts
• January 2009: First section of roof compression truss lifted
• Summer 2011: Construction due to complete
  

– Ends –

For further information please contact the Olympic Delivery Authority Press Office on +44 (0)20 3 2012 700.

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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