London Olympic Stadium stands tall

The London 2012 Olympic Stadium

It's a milestone for the construction of the Olympic Stadium in London. According to the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), the first of the Olympic Stadium’s lighting towers has been successfully lifted into place displaying the stadium's full height - 60 metres above the field of play below.

The 'feat' was described as one of the toughest engineering challenges on the Stadium project to date. A 650-tonne crane was built in the middle of the stadium in order to lift the 28m-high lighting towers on top of the inner ring of the cable-net roof.

The lighting towers are essential for illuminating the field of play and are apparently necessary for high definition footage. They are located high above the stadium roof to ensure "optimum lighting angles" which will 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.

Heart of the action

In a statement, ODA chairman John Armitt said: "The Olympic Stadium will be at the heart of the action in 2012 and its image will be beamed to billions of people across the world. The team has made impressive progress over the last year and we are on schedule to finish by the summer of 2011 to give a year for Test Events.
 
"The lifting of the lighting towers is a significant engineering and construction challenge and has taken a huge amount of work and planning, complicated by snow, wind and rain. Once all fourteen towers have been lifted, the Stadium will be at its full height and the venue will be another huge step closer to completion.'

Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London 2012 Organising Committee, concurred with the chairman's sentiments saying, 'The Olympic Stadium will be the centrepiece of the London 2012 Games, and it is very exciting to see it taking shape so quickly. There will be some fantastic sporting action taking place there and the eyes of the world will be on us in the summer of 2012. We look forward to welcoming the world’s athletes to the Stadium in 2012."

Last year, it was reported that the cost of the Games had risen by GBP£21 million.

Relevant articles:

2012 Olympics cost rises by £21m | The Cloud, London | High-speed rail hits the Olympics

Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

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