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Olympic stadium rises from the dirt
Ellen Widdup23.09.08
This is the 40-acre building site that is being transformed into the Olympic stadium.
In the past three months, workers and diggers have been doing 12-hour shifts to create the foundations. Now the first curve of the terraces that will seat 80,000 spectators is beginning to take shape.
More than 145 columns, each about five metres high, have been sunk into the soil. Eight cranes tower over the site, laying large diagonal sections that have zig-zag shaped indentations.
These diagonal sections will support 12,000 horizontal blocks - each weighing 10 tonnes - into which the seats will be slotted.
The blocks have been pre-cast and will be delivered in lorries from factories in Lincolnshire and Somerset.
The Olympic Development Authority's stadium project sponsor, Ian Crockford, said: "The Stadium has been designed to be different, with the legacy ambitions driving how we construct the venue.
"The team is rising to the challenge and work is progressing on the ground at an impressive rate." The completed structure will take up an area the size of four football pitches. Construction started in May - three months earlier than originally planned - after 33 buildings were demolished.
The first stage saw the removal of 800,000 tonnes of soil - enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall nine times over. Some 1,300 cubic metres of concrete have been used to create a flat expanse that will eventually form the entrance to the stadium from street level.
A spokesman said: "The total stadium island site will cover five times the size of the Houses of Parliament.
"It will be highly sustainable, containing around 10,000 tonnes of steel - the lightest Olympic stadium to date. When it is finished it will stand 53m high - taller than Nelson's Column."
Reader views (7)
Stop moaning 
- Kitty, London
all the investment is going into the pockets of polish builders, billions of it. You try getting a job there if your English. BOYCOTT IT when it opens
- James Ash, berkshire uk
It ought to be ready about a year in advance but it will probably still be half built with about 6 weeks left!
- Mark, Watford
If it's anything like Wembley, it will be overbudget, the seats will be the wrong colour and of course it won't be finished until 2014.
- Adam, Harrow, UK
My partner is a plumber who is trying to find work with 15 other plumbers at the Olympic stadium. When they approached the contractors they were told they had 30,000 Polish builders on their books and no British UK workers were being employed. London Olympics Yeah great.
- Jenny, Birmingham, UK
Nice to see where my hard earned is going.
If the people of Stratford had to fund this wasteful pointless event it would never have got off the ground.
Shame that.
- Steve, Marylebone
Ian Crockford of the ODA says "with the legacy ambitions driving how we construct the venue" - if a solution still hasn't been agreed on who is to use the stadium after the Games, how can anyone be sure that the design will be fit for purpose?
Also "It will be highly sustainable, containing around 10,000 tonnes of steel" - since when has steel been a sustainable commodity? Sustainability implies the use of resources that can be replaced or regenerated.
- R. Goodacre, London SW15
