Companies from across the UK have helped complete the construction of the Olympic Stadium ahead of schedule and under budget, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) announced 29 March 2011.
IOC member and former Olympian Frankie Fredericks, ODA chairman John Armitt and LOCOG chair Seb Coe have today laid the last piece of turf on the Olympic Stadium‟s field of play, marking the completion of construction on the flagship venue.
Construction started on the Olympic Stadium just under three years ago in May 2008 and has been completed on time, under budget and with an exemplary safety record. The final surface of the running track will be laid later this year by LOCOG. This is to ensure it is protected during the programme of temporary overlay including work for ceremonies which may need cranes in the field of play and could damage the track.
Over 240 companies based across the UK, plus many more sub-contractors, won contracts to work on the Olympic Stadium project and have helped the venue complete on time, just under 3 years after construction began.
This includes the turf which has been grown in Scunthorpe; seats from Milton Keyes, steel from Bolton; concrete terracing units from Taunton; and fencing from Wolverhampton.
ODA chairman John Armitt said: “The Olympic Stadium has been finished on time and under budget and is a huge milestone for the London 2012 project. Companies of all sizes from across the UK have worked together to complete a complicated project in less than three years and it is testament to the skill and professionalism of the UK construction industry.”
Some of the companies involved in the successful construction of the Stadium include:
Turf grown by County Turf in Scunthorpe and installed by Hewitts Turf from Leicester
Spectator seats manufactured by Certwood in Luton
Soft landscaping work by Waterscapes from Somerset
Utilities services by Balmoral Sectional Tanks Ltd from Aberdeen
Soil supplies from Freeland Horticulture in Hextable
Euroclad from Wales provided the external cladding for the west stand
Hart Door Systems based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne who supplied roller shutters
Internal fence supplied by Zaun from Wolverhampton
Surrey-based company Prater who worked on the cladding for the Stadium‟s west stand
Leighs Paints from Bolton who worked on the structural steelwork
Fastglobe from Wiltshire who carried out the joining work on the terraces
Pheonix Flooring from Leeds
Drainage services provided by SDI Unistride Drainage Solutions from Hampshire
Structural Metal Decks from Poole in Dorset have supplied the metal decking and studs
McGrath Group from County Antrim in northern Ireland carried out architectural metal work
Olympic Stadium facts and figures
80,000 capacity in Games mode and designed to be flexible enough to accommodate a number of different legacy requirements and capacities in legacy
The Stadium hosts the Opening and Closing ceremonies as well as the Athletics track and field events
The Stadium is visible across the Park from all approaches and will be the centre piece for the 2012 Games.
The total Stadium island site covers an area of 40 acres - it is a compact and surrounded by water on three sides.
Five major new bridges will lead spectators into the site, provide spectacular views across the Park and London
The shape of the Stadium is an ellipse with a long axis of 315 meters and a short axis of 256 meters. It stands at 60m in height above the field of play and the perimeter is 860m
33 buildings on the Olympic Stadium site had been demolished and over 800,000 tonnes of soil was taken away before construction could begin - enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall nine times over
The Stadium will contain around 10,000 tonnes of steel - it will be the lightest Olympic Stadium to date
Construction facts and figures
Construction started in May 2008 and has been completed in just under 3 years.
The design and construction team has been led by Sir Robert McAlpine, with Populous as the Architect and Buro Happold as the designer of the civils, structural and building services work. Hyland Edgar Driver were the Landscape Architects. The Planning Consultant was Savilles Hepher Dixon.
Over 5250 people have worked on the project over the past 3 years with the operatives workforce peaking at 650
Over 240 businesses have worked on the construction of the Stadium from Devon to Scotland
More than 5,000 reinforced concrete columns were installed into the ground, up to 20m deep, to provide the foundations to support the Stadium structure
112 steel rakers and 12,000 pre-cast concrete terracing units hold the spectator seating in place
The roof compression truss is made up of 28 steel sections, each one is 15m high by 30m long and weigh 85 tonne. A 1,350-tonne super lift crane was
assembled in the field of play to lift them into place between January and July in 2009.
The cable net roof provides the correct conditions for athletes on the field of play and covering two-thirds of spectators. The roof is covered by 112 panels of white material, totalling 25,000 m². The fabric was fitted by a team of 23 expert abseilers.
To ensure that the sporting action is illuminated and to meet high definition TV standards, the Stadium is lit by 532 individual floodlights housed in 14 towers. The top of the towers reach 70 metres above the field of play.
Each of the 14 lighting tower weighs 34 tonnes and are 28m high. They were lifted into place by a 650 tonne crane over a period of 14 days in March 2010.
There will be around 700 rooms and spaces within the Stadium, including changing rooms and toilets. The fit-out work has required15,000 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 and 12km of ventilation ducts.
The turf for the field of play was grown in Scunthorpe and was laid over a period of 3 days in March 2011.
The track will be laid later this year to allow for LOCOG to carry out temporary overlay work which may need cranes and so could damage the track if it was laid now.
The black and white spectator seats were designed in the UK and manufactured in a factory in Luton. They were fitted between May and December 2010.
The toilets for spectators are spread out across 32 separate buildings on the podium level and are all now functional.