In the week that Zaha Hadid’s £268M Aquatics Centre opened, marking a year to go to the opening of the Olympic Games, Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, John Armitt praised the construction industry efforts in building the Games’ stadia and infrastructure on time and in budget, Construction News reported.
Speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme he declared ‘The British Construction industry has done exactly what it says on the tin- I am very proud of the industry today.’ He also added that the construction team had worked hard to ensure that the Games came in under budget. ‘We’ve built the Games for £800M less than the budget we were given,’ he said.
Construction News also reported that the UK Contractors Group met with representatives of the ODA to learn lessons from the Olympic Construction programme regarding health and safety and diversity. UKCG director Stephen Ratcliffe is hoping to transfer lessons learned to the Crossrail Construction programme. ‘We are picking their brains to see where there is a legacy that we can pass on to our members,’ he said. More than 1,500 direct contracts have been awarded for the Olympic Games, worth more than £6BN.
Meanwhile, the possibility of further external works contracting on the Olympic Park was raised with the announcement of two design competitions for public spaces in the Olympic Park, Building magazine reported. The Olympic Park Legacy Company wants to develop landscaping plans for a 22ha area around the Arcelor Mittal Orbit, with a budget of £12M, and a 2ha hectare ‘North Park’, budgeted at £5M. Winners will be announced at the end of the year.
