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Olympic News

2012 Olympic visitors make £40m for London

Improvements to transport and accommodation linked to the Games have resulted in a surge of bookings, said the official visitor organisation for London, Visit London.

The group has calculated the value in hotel takings and visitor spending of bookings they say are related to being a host city. These include Sport Accord 2011, the world's largest sports congress, set to bring in £2.4 million and the 52-nation World Skills Competition in 2011 to promote vocational training, expected to generate £29 million. WorldSkills London will be held at the ExCeL exhibition and conference centre in London Thames Gateway from 5-8 October 2011.

 

Olympic Stadium raises the roof

The cable net roof of the London 2012 Olympic stadium has been lifted into place, ensuring that the venue remains on target for completion by the summer of 2011. This spring, the cable net roof will be covered with material, providing the correct conditions for athletes on the field and covering two-thirds of spectators.

Construction on the Olympic Stadium started in May 2008 and progress to date has included:

  • More than 4,500 reinforced concrete columns installed as the foundations
  • 28 steel sections of the roof compression truss lifted into place - each weigh 85 tonnes and are 15m high by 30m long
  • 112 steel rakers fixed to act as the terracing supports to hold the 55,000 seats in the upper tiers
  • 12,000 pre-cast concrete terracing units for the seating installed
  • All five bridges and their abutments in place, connecting the Stadium island to the rest of the Park
  • The fit-out of the 700 rooms and spaces within the stadium, including changing rooms and toilets is progressing.

This year, a 650 tonne crane will be assembled in the middle of the stadium site to lift the 28m high lighting gantries on to inner ring of the cable net roof, taking them 60m above the field of play.

Images of the Stadium's roof lift and time-lapse footage can be viewed or downloaded here.

Progress on the Olympic Stadium can be viewed on the webcam on the London 2012 website.

 

West Ham keen on Olympic Stadium

The new owners of West Ham Football Club are seeking to move the club to a permanent home in the Olympic Stadium, they announced in January.

Announcing a deal to take a 50 per cent stake in the club, one of the owners, media magnate David Sullivan, expressed an interest in moving West Ham from its 35,000-capacity ground at Upton Park, to the Olympic Stadium, as part of his long-term plan to improve the club.

  

Olympic Park workforce tops 9,000

The latest employment and skills figures published by the ODA show the combined total construction workforce for the Olympic Park and Olympic Village "big build" has reached 9,164.  The ODA figures show 6,277 people are currently working on the Olympic Park construction site and 2,887 people are working on the Athletes' Village.  Of the current 6,277 strong Olympic Park workforce, 20% are resident in the five Host Boroughs, and 53% live in London.