The sky’s the limit for the Olympic Stadium

The first of the Olympic Stadium's lighting towers have been successfully lifted into place, taking the majestic venue to its full height at 60 metres above the field of play. A 650-tonne crane has been assembled in the middle of the stadium to lift the 28 metre high lighting towers on top of the inner ring of the cable-net roof, one of the toughest engineering challenges on the stadium project so far.

The lighting towers, which will illuminate the action on the field of play and are necessary for high definition footage, are located high above the stadium roof to ensure optimum lighting angles which avoid dazzling spectators, photographers and competitors.

There will be a total of 14 lighting towers, each weighing 34 tonnes, designed with integrated walkways, access, power supplies and cabling and lighting. The cable-net roof of the Olympic Stadium was lifted into place at the end of 2009 and will be covered with material once all the lighting towers are in place, providing the correct conditions for athletes on the field of play and covering two-thirds of spectators.