200 Days to London 2012

[jerseyboi]

On Monday, the 200-day countdown to the London Olympics will begin.

Read More http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/new...#ixzz1io7jx7ud

London 2012: Olympic Park can put Britain back in the shop window

On Tuesday morning, the Olympic Delivery Authority's chief executive, Dennis Hone, will hand over the keys to the Olympic Park to the London 2012 organising committee.

It marks the point at which the baton is passed from the organisation that spent £7.1bn of public money building the venues that will host the Games to the body responsible for delivering the events that will light them up in July and August.

Hone, who was the ODA's finance director until taking over from David Higgins last February, says the job is now "95% done", with only a bit of tarmacing, landscaping and plastering to finish. The authority will then hand over to Locog, which must fit out the venues and "dress" the park for the Games.

While keen not to be seen as "blowing our own trumpet before we've finished the job", Hone is able to reflect on a project that has banished the ghosts of Pickett's Lock, the Millennium Dome and Wembley from the national psyche.

"We knew the difficulties that happened developing in the Greenwich peninsula and were fearful of what we might find," he says. "But it's been a fantastic team effort – and I'd include both governments, we've had great cross-party support, right down to the 46,000 people who've worked on the site."

When London won the bid in 2005, recalls Hone, it was difficult to get contractors interested, such was the glut of available work elsewhere and the potentially ruinous risk to a company's reputation should work not proceed as planned. The success of the project lies in the groundwork put in even before remediating the earth on the 500-acre site began. "I've heard stories of Athens, where they changed the management teams, threw the budget out the window and left roofs off in some cases. We did our planning in the beginning," says Hone.

The unassuming Hone pronounces himself "pretty pleased" with the mix of venues, from the universally praised £86m velodrome to the minimalist £438m main stadium and the £253m Zaha Hadid-designed Aquatics Centre that has proved equally controversial for its cost and construction.

"The velodrome is stunning, inside and out. But maybe because it was one of the first off the production line and finished, I've got a real soft spot for the Aquatics Centre," he says. "I can't wait to see it with its wings off, when they put the glass sides on and it really opens out. I'm convinced it will be an absolutely stunning building, you just won't see the best of it during the Games."

That beauty will be obscured by two temporary "water wings" that will house an additional 15,000 spectators. A more expensive, visually appealing option was mooted early in the design process, but Hone says that was just one of many compromises. "It would have been £400m-plus. People would have asked how you justify that and what the use is going to be in legacy. It's all been balance and trade-offs."

In many ways, the construction effort was helped by the recession, allowing the government to justify the budget as a Keynesian investment and enabling the ODA to drive a harder bargain with contractors. But Hone says it also presented the biggest challenge when a deal to have the construction of the village funded by private backers collapsed. It has since been sold back to the private sector. Qatari Diar, the oil-rich state's investment arm, and the UK property developer Delancey Estates will take delivery of roughly half of the properties next year, after they have been converted to flats and houses by the ODA. First they will charge Locog for any damage caused by frustrated athletes. The rest will become an affordable housing scheme.

The creed that helped win the Games put legacy at its heart, using existing venues and temporary structures in famous locations, while ensuring each new permanent venue had a viable future. On the biggest potential white elephant, now undergoing a fresh tender process after a deal with West Ham United collapsed, Hone expresses relief that the main stadium will stay at its full size rather than being reduced to a 25,000-capacity bowl. "It's had a rocky road, but that's coming to fruition now. Anybody who has worked on constructing that stadium would want to see it remain fully in place if possible."

If the ODA has been praised for delivering on time and on budget, it has faced criticism for failing to hit targets on sustainability and employment. A target to provide 20% of the energy for the park through renewable means was scuppered when plans for a wind turbine collapsed. "We talked to all the major suppliers and the big issue was health and safety – in cold weather ice can form and it can fall, so you need a clearance zone. If that is true, large-scale wind turbines will not work in urban areas," says Hone, who points out the ODA hit the vast majority of its environmental targets and four of its six employment ones.

Although delivery has been effectively delegated to Transport for London, the ODA retains ultimate oversight of a transport operation that, along with security, is seen as the biggest obstacle. Much will depend on businesses and individuals heeding advice on when and how to travel. "I hope we don't go through the experience where people try it for a couple of days and find out what a mess it is, and then alter their behaviour. That has happened in other cities.

"The system is under pressure as it is. It will be under pressure at Games time, you may have to miss a couple of trains before you get going. But as long as people leave sufficient time and act sensibly, and follow the instructions, it will work."

Hone is entitled to a degree of quiet satisfaction. It is largely through the efforts of the ODA that Lord Coe's organising committee is able to enter Olympic year, and contemplate Monday's milestone of 200 days to go, with a degree of optimism.

"I hope what we've done on the park is a showcase to prove we can plan these projects, build them and get them out the other end on time. It's a great opportunity to show what British companies and individuals can do," he says.

[jerseyboi]

The count down clock on website is a bit odd it had 201 days yesterday - ( same today ) rather confusing should be on UK GMT? very odd.

[DarJoLe]

I think it clicks over a day at the time of the start of the Opening Ceremony.

[pagey17]

Going to be weird see it going into the "1 hundreds" and at the same time exciting.

[southseasteve]

CABINET MEETING IN PARK TO MARK 200 DAYS

The main stadium for the 2012 games will have a capacity of 80,000
The cabinet are due to meet later at the London Olympics site, to mark 200 days until the start of the Games.

It is the first get-together this year for David Cameron's senior ministers.

Several cabinet meetings have been held outside Downing Street in recent years including in Bradford and Glasgow.

The PM says the Games are set to provide a "lasting legacy". It comes as future operators for three more venues - the Aquatics Centre, handball arena and observation tower - are announced.

The future operators of six venues have now been secured and organisers say they are confident deals for the remaining two, the stadium and the media centre, will be signed ahead of the opening ceremony.

The Olympics will run from 27 July to 12 August and the Paralympics from 29 August to 9 September.

In his New Year message, the prime minister said 2012 would be "the year Britain sees the world and the world sees Britain", with the Queen's Diamond Jubliee celebrations also taking place.

At the Olympic site, senior ministers and officials will discuss ways to ensure that the Games bring lasting benefits for the UK.

Security force

The cabinet meeting comes after it was reported that police carrying out security tests ahead of the Olympics had managed to smuggle a fake bomb on to the main site in Stratford, east London.

Last month the Ministry of Defence confirmed that 13,500 military personnel - more than the 10,000 that were deployed to Afghanistan - will be part of the 23,700 security force for the Games.

The Olympic Park will be home to venues for sports including athletics, water polo, cycling, basketball and hockey.

The main stadium will hold up to 80,000 people.

Details of the new contracts for the three venues are to be set out by the Olympic Park Legacy Company.

It said the new operator of the Aquatics Centre hopes 800,000 people a year will make use of its facilities after the games. The handball arena will become London's third largest site for concerts, shows, exhibitions and sport events. The observation tower, the 115m (377ft) AccelorMittal Orbit, expects to attract up to a million visitors a year.

Meanwhile, the Olympic ticket resale website remains suspended after problems caused London 2012 chiefs to close it on Friday afternoon.

Games organiser Locog said it would reopen once the issues had been fixed - but could not say when that would be.

The main problem appeared to be that the site, run by Ticketmaster, was slow to update sessions which had sold out.

The process was designed to allow people to try to resell their unwanted London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic tickets to others willing to buy them.

Earlier last week it emerged that 10,000 extra tickets - which did not exist - were mistakenly sold for synchronised swimming events.

[jerseyboi]

London 2012 Today - Lets Have A Look....

[jerseyboi]

[jerseyboi]

[EnglishKevin]

I recall how my friends in Sydney were absolutely exasperated by an incessant bombardment of hype/propaganda that they couldn't escape and that grew in intensity in the lead up to the games.

Still......at least it won't be as bad as 18 years of Stephen Lawrence (and counting).