T minus 1405 days and counting

I had the opportunity to go to the London Olympics site yesterday. Security at the site was very tight and even us, who have been working on the project have limited access to the area.

This is the site office but it doesn't look like one yea? It looked like a permanent building. Site offices in the UK are so different from Malaysia's. The staff welfare in this country is really well taken care of. Makes construction look so much "cleaner" than what people usually have in mind; some bloke in a hard hat with an oily rag and Wellington boots; or the Phua Chu Kang image.

It was also an open day to the public where a BBQ was held after the site tour. The BBQ was by invitation only though. As with the previous public function on the London Olympics, two of my ex-coursemates were there too.

Reunion photo

Seeing the site in engineering drawings and looking at it being build is a different experience altogether. You can now see the "baby's head and hands".

Notice the tower cranes are arranged in a circle. That's the size of the Olympics main stadium.


A panorama shot of the lower platform of the main stadium now being constructed. (Click to enlarge). Some interesting figures:
Earthwork volume: 800,000 tonnes
Area: 40 acres
Stadium height: 53m

Scale model of the main stadium

The colourful pods are kiosks around the Olympics main stadium. I think they will be used as information and food kiosks during the games.

This is how it should look like in 2012. Everyone should be able to see the real thing by 2011 when construction is completed.


A video of London 2012 and the main stadium

What I find interesting about the stadium design is that, after the Games are over, the stadium will be stripped down and converted into a smaller stadium. You'd find this towards the end of the video. The London Olympics aim to be different from other Olympics venues as the previous venues have degenerated into a white elephant after the games are over and became a long-term maintenance liability. Learning from this, London is putting in lots of planning for the legacy part of the Olympics.

Construction work is three months ahead of schedule. So that's good news.

After the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics, all eyes are on London now. We really cannot screw this up.

The countdown has begun: T minus 1405 days.