London 2012 continues to make positive progress
The International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Coordination Commission concluded its fifth full visit (25-26 November) to the city of London. With less than 1,000 days to go to the London 2012 Opening Ceremony, the Commission was able to hear about the advances made by the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) and its partners and share their thoughts and experiences on the planning for the Games. The two-day session focused principally on the operational delivery of the Games; and the Commission received in-depth updates on the progress of its operations.
Commenting after the meeting, IOC Coordination Commission Chairman Denis Oswald said, “Once again, we have had very productive meetings with our partners at London 2012 and we are very positive about the progress that they are making in preparing for the Games.”
He continued, “It is over a year since the Beijing Games came to a close, and LOCOG has clearly been able to learn from its experiences last year and integrate them into planning for 2012. This was evident from the good discussions and sharing of information that we had around a number of topics including venues, infrastructure, workforce, city preparations and LOCOG’s volunteer programme, which will be launched next year. LOCOG also updated us on the proposals to move badminton and rhythmic gymnastics to Wembley Arena and we are satisfied with progress on this issue. LOCOG is discussing the proposal with the two International Federations concerned, and we look forward to hearing LOCOG’s position at our Executive Board meeting in December.”
LOCOG Chairman Sebastian Coe commented, “We have been incredibly busy in the last seven months. We have brought nine new sponsors to the table and have now raised a total of nearly GBP 600m. We have made significant progress across all our operation planning, from sports schedules and test events to our ticking and volunteer programmes and the detailed venue and city operations. Our organisation is growing into a lean, focused Organising Committee and we are in great shape. We are delighted that the IOC – which, after all, is the expert in staging the Games – is pleased with our progress and we look forward to demonstrating the continued progress when the Commission visits again next year.
With venue construction continuing on or ahead of schedule and the Games drawing ever nearer, the focus of this Coordination Commission was largely on operations and planning than on the excellent construction and regeneration work being carried out by the Olympic Delivery Authority. With this in mind, the Commission spent time discussing with LOCOG and its partners, including the Government and the Mayor of London’s office, a number of operational subjects including athlete services, ticketing, city operations, technology, press operations, transport, sport and Paralympic Games operations.
London 2012: Sustainability features per venue
Olympic Stadium
- Lightest Olympic Stadium to date – minimising use of steel and reducing carbon footprint
- unwanted gas pipelines used for the roof truss which saved producing new steel
- high recycled content used for concrete foundations
- materials delivered to site by water, including delivery of pipes
- bird and bat boxes built into Stadium site
- recycled granite from King George V docks used for Stadium river banks
Aquatics Centre
- high recycled content used for concrete foundations
- Water used to clean the swimming pool filters will be recycled for toilet flushing
- 3,500sq m of ‘living roof’ – biodiversity space for wildlife
- Legal and sustainable timber used for cladding
- Bird and bat boxes built into Aquatics Centre bridge
Velodrome
- Strategically placed roof lights will reduce on the need for artificial light
- Almost 100 per cent naturally ventilated
- Designed to reduce water consumption by 44 per cent
- Rainwater harvesting for toilet flushing and landscape irrigation
- Light-weight venue design lowers carbon footprint
Handball
- 100 per cent recycled aggregate for piling
- Rainwater harvesting to reduce potable water demand
- 100 light pipes in the ceiling to allow natural light into the venue
- Rainwater harvesting to reduce potable water demand
Eton Manor
- More than 617sq m ‘living roof’ – biodiversity space for wildlife
- the Park’s 120m tall wind turbine will be built next on the Eton Manor site providing enough energy to power 1,000 homes
- non-potable water used for irrigation
Olympic Village
- will achieve the Government’s new ‘Code for Sustainable Homes Level Four’ which is a national environmental standard, resulting in a 44 per cent reduction in carbon emissions and 30 per cent reduction in water use, as well delivering a range of other environmental benefits.
- first time that a large scale development will meet ‘Level Four’ in the UK
Media Centre
- 2,500sq m of ‘living roof’ – biodiversity space for wildlife
- Bird and bat boxes
- Use of recycled water to flush the toilets and for other non potable uses
London 2012: Olympic Delivery Authority sustainability highlights
Sustainable venues
Olympic Park venues are being designed and built to be as energy efficient and sustainable as possible. For example the Velodrome is almost 100 per cent naturally ventilated and uses natural light to reduce energy consumption and rain water will be collected from the roof for flushing toilets and irrigation.
Green transport
To reduce the number of lorries on the roads and the resulting carbon emissions, the ODA is using rail and water routes to get materials delivered to site and waste taken away. Currently over 50 per cent of materials by weight are delivered by train including aggregate, kerbs and drainage units, and waste is being taken away by barges through the recently dredged waterways and a new lock and water control structure.
Green energy
The new Energy Centre and network being built on the site will provide efficient and low-carbon power by using new technology including biomass boilers and a Combined Cooling Heat & Power (CCHP) plant to capture the heat generated as a by-product of electricity production. A new 120m high wind turbine will also help contribute towards a 20 per cent renewable energy target.
Reuse
No materials leave the site if they can be reused or recycled in another way, reducing waste and the amount sent to landfill. During demolition, 97 per cent of the material was reclaimed to be reused in the creation of the Olympic Park. For example, the re-design of a key walking and cycling route, the Greenway, has used materials including bricks, paving stones, cobbles, man-hole covers, timber sleepers and tiles that were salvaged from the demolition stage.
Recycle
In one of the biggest clean-up operations of its kind, the ODA is cleaning and reusing hundreds of thousands of tonnes of soil which would otherwise have to be transported off site. A ‘soil hospital’ has been set up on the Olympic Park with machines that shake and clean the soil free from contaminants such as tar, oil and petrol, and produces clean material which can be used in the creation of the correct land levels, foundations and parklands.
Conserving water
The Olympic Park sports venues will use at least 40 per cent less water than equivalent buildings through initiatives such as low flush toilets, waterless urinals and rain water harvesting from roofs. The Aquatics Centre’s systems will be built to recycle the water that has been used to clean the swimming pool filters to then flush the toilets, whilst other venues are installing rain water harvesting facilities.
Protecting wildlife
Existing wildlife and habitats on the site are being protected during the construction phase, including translocating thousand of newts and hundreds of frogs. The Park and its venues have been designed to create 45 hectares of wildlife habitats and will include reedbeds, grasslands, ponds, woodlands, 525 bird boxes, 150 bat boxes and artificial otter holts.
Sustainable sourcing
The ODA is committed to using materials which are sustainably sourced and minimise any impact on the environment. A panel of timber suppliers has been set up for contractors across the Olympic Park that guarantees to supply only legal and sustainably sourced timber.
Brownfield to Greenfield
The Olympic Park site is being transformed from an area scarred by industrial use and years of neglect to a new urban park with improved infrastructure and world-class sporting facilities. Over 4,000 trees, 74,000 plants, 60,000 bulbs and 240,000 wetlands plants will be planted to create a new open green space for London, the largest planting project ever undertaken in the UK.
Low carbon
To reduce the embodied carbon of venues on the Olympic Park, the on-site concrete batching plant supplies low-carbon concrete to all contractors working on the project. This is achieved by substituting raw materials needed to make the concrete mix with secondary or recycled materials such as by-products from coal power stations and steel manufacture, and recycled glass.
London 2012s green build on track
ODA continues to set new sustainability standards as Olympic Park wins major industry award
The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has announced it is on track or exceeding the wide-ranging set of sustainability targets for the London 2012 construction project.
The project’s sustainability standards have also been recognised by the industry with the ‘Legacy for Sustainability’ award at the Constructing Excellence National Awards.
The targets, set out in the ODA’s Sustainable Development Strategy in 2007, cover a variety of areas ranging from using low-carbon materials and recycling construction waste to incorporating rain-water harvesting and bird and bat boxes into the design and build of venues.
Among other achievements, the ODA is currently delivering 60 per cent of materials by weight by rail or water transport, beating a target of 50 per cent and dramatically reducing vehicle movements and the resulting carbon emissions. The ODA has also reported that 90% of construction waste is being diverted from landfill and is being reused or recycled instead, and the first of 4,000 semi-mature trees have been planted on site.
ODA Chairman John Armitt said: ‘Sustainability is at the heart of our plans and what we have tasked our contractors to achieve is unprecedented for a project of this size and scale.
‘Our targets include reusing and recycling 90 per cent of waste, delivering over half the materials needed by sustainable transport, using natural remediation methods to clean soil, barges to take away segregated waste through newly-dredged waterways and only legal and sustainable timber sourced through a supplier panel.
‘We wanted to lift the bar for the industry and set new sustainability standards and our contractors and suppliers have more than risen to the challenge. We hope that this project becomes a beacon for the planning, design and delivery of future large-scale projects.’
Minister for the Olympics Tessa Jowell said: ‘The London 2012 Games is an iconic project taking place at a time when the world is faced with the global challenges from climate change. That’s why they must be more than just six weeks of sport, they must also provide a blue print for sustainable working and living. Whether it’s using rail and water routes to get materials on to the Olympic Park, building an Energy Centre to provide low-carbon power or designing park venues to be as energy efficient as possible, sustainability has been embedded in the planning, staging and legacy of London 2012 from the outset.
‘The Games offer a unique opportunity to inspire large numbers of people to be more sustainable in their everyday lives. The standards achieved in the building of the Park also have the potential to be a major influence on the construction sector in the UK. This would be a major legacy not just for Britain, but the whole world.
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: ‘I want London to be the cleanest and greenest city in the world by 2012. The construction of the Olympic Park offers an unparallelled opportunity to secure a radical improvement to east London’s environment, whilst providing a sterling example of what can be achieved across the capital in other developments, small and large. We will be working to untap the potential springing from the Games to ensure a lasing legacy for Londoners.’
Work powers ahead on mean, lean and green Olympic Park Energy Centre
Work is powering ahead on a state-of-the-art Energy Centre in the Olympic Park the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) announced.
Sustainable features ‘will set a model for future urban regeneration’
The Energy Centre will include a range of sustainability features to create a ‘mean, lean and green’ building helping to reduce the carbon emissions of the Olympic Park and setting a benchmark for future regeneration schemes.
The Energy Centre is being constructed in the west of the Olympic Park and will provide an efficient heating and cooling system across Olympic Park site for the Games and for the new buildings and communities that will develop after 2012. The Energy Centre will include biomass boilers using sustainable biomass fuels to generate heat, and a Combined Cooling Heat and Power (CCHP) plant to capture the heat generated by electricity production. The project is one of the largest energy centre schemes to be built so far in the UK, and is being designed and built to be:
Mean
- Building designed to utilise recycled materials and a derelict Victorian building retained and reused to house key parts of energy centre equipment
- Flexible modular building design – avoids overcapacity in first phase of development but allows future technologies to be incorporated as they are developed and as demand grows after 2012.
Lean
- Deliver energy via low carbon technologies – a Combined Cooling Heat & Power (CCHP) plant will capture the heat generated by electricity production
- Community energy networks designed to operate at low temperatures
- Heating and cooling networks designed to minimise losses
- More efficient conversion of fuel compared to conventional gas and coal-fired energy plants.
Green
- Biomass boilers will use sustainable biomass fuels to generate heat, contributing to 20 per cent renewable energy target across Olympic Park
- Zero carbon renewable energy sources used such as biofuel
- CCHP plant will lead to carbon reduction of more than 1000 tonnes per year
- Recycled wastewater will be used for Energy Centre cooling towers.
ODA Director of Infrastructure and Utilities Simon Wright said: ‘Sustainability is at the heart of the 2012 project and the Energy Centre will ensure a lasting legacy of green power in the Olympic Park for generations to come. The state-of-the-art Energy Centre will be one of the largest in the UK and the lean, mean and green sustainability features that underpin this project will set a model for future urban regeneration schemes.’
Construction work started on the Energy Centre in August 2008 and progress over the last year includes:
- More than 200 piles installed more than 20m in length to form the foundations of the building
- Over 500 tonnes of steel installed to create the frame of the Energy Centre which will be 45m tall at its highest point
- 3,500 square metres of concrete ‘planks’ lifted into place to form the floors and roof of the Energy Centre
- 5 cooling towers lifted into place as the first of the major plant to be installed at the energy centre. These towers are each the size of a small house
- 3 hotwater boilers installed each around 60 tonnes in total
- Work now underway to install the steel cladding around the outer shell of the Energy Centre
- Work well underway on roof replacement works and structural improvements to the retained Victorian building.
The Energy Centre is due for completion in spring 2010 when it will begin providing heated water to the Olympic Park venues. The Energy Centre will then be connected to further venues and buildings when they are completed, delivering an early legacy of essential services throughout the Olympic Park.
The Olympic Park Energy Centre is being constructed by GDF Suez Energy Services, through its subsidiary Cofely East London Energy, together with approximately 16km of Community Energy Networks. The construction of the Energy Centre is being financed by GDF Suez Energy Services who will recover their investment through the long term operation rights of the new infrastructure
Project of the Year award for groundbreaking Olympic Park powerlines project
The Olympic Park powerlines project has been awarded the Project of the Year award by the Association for Project Management.
The Association for Project Management called it a ‘groundbreaking project’ and presented the award in recognition of the highly complex and challenging powerlines work being delivered to an unprecedented timetable and within budget.
The £250m powerlines project saw the construction of two 6-kilometre tunnels built beneath the Olympic Park and Lower Lea Valley region, enabling the power needed for the London 2012 Games and legacy developments to be carried underground. The construction of the underground tunnels enabled 52 overhead electricity pylons to be removed from the Olympic Park skyline, unlocking the landscape for the construction of venues and infrastructure.
The powerlines project began in 2005 ahead of London’s successful bid to host the 2012 Games, and was completed in December 2008 when the last overhead pylon in the Olympic Park was removed. The powerlines work saw one of the most complex tunnelling projects in Europe, being delivered in half the time of the industry norm, on budget and with an impressive health and safety record.
Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) Chairman John Armitt said: ‘The powerlines project delivered the first real legacy from the Games by unlocking the Olympic Park landscape for long-term regeneration, allowing the skyline of east London to be permanently transformed.
‘This was a complex and hugely challenging project delivered on budget and to an unprecedented timetable. This award is recognition of the considerable achievement of the powerlines team, our contractors and other partners.
‘The careful planning, collaborative working and innovation used in this project has set a benchmark for world-class delivery, not only for the wider Olympic Park construction projects, but for the whole industry to follow.’
The powerlines project has involved several separate phases:
Feasibility and design phase
* Early procurement and refurbishment of the only worldwide available tunnel boring machines (TBM) to meet the required tunnel diameters and ground conditions.
* Early procurement of power system materials and cables to meet the project programme.
Tunnelling phase
* Two 6km tunnels built beneath the Olympic Park enabling the power needed for the Games and legacy developments to be carried underground
* Four huge 40 tonne tunnelling machines used
* Tunnelling work completed in 424 days
* Olympic Park tunnelling accounted for 85 per cent of the UK’s tunnelling for that year
* 200,000 cubic metres of spoil created during tunnelling – enough to fill Wembley Stadium – majority of which is being reused on the Olympic Park
* Complex nature of tunnelling process meant a series of obstacles were encountered during the project, including issues with soil contamination and encountering small ground movements and water ingress beneath the surface of the Olympic Park
* Tunnelling phase was delivered on time, on budget and with an impressive health & safety record which was better than the industry average
Cabling and commissioning phase
* Work began in June 2007 to install 200km of cabling in the tunnels – enough to stretch from London to Nottingham.
* More than 9,000 brackets also installed to carry cabling along the tunnel walls together with monitoring and ventilation equipment.
* Cabling phase of project completed on schedule in May 2008, allowing testing and commissioning of the new underground equipment to begin and be completed without affecting power supplies to existing customers.
* Power then switched underground in summer 2008 allowing work to remove the overhead pylons and powerlines to begin.
Pylon removal phase
* 52 overhead pylons removed – 1,300 tonnes of steel, all recycled
* 130km of overhead wires removed
* All pylons within the Olympic Park boundary removed by December 2008 unlocking the landscape
* Pylons through the Lower Lea Valley towards Hackney and West Ham removed by mid 2009.