The Greek government wants some money in advance from the European Commission to help build more roads in time for the start of the Athens 2004 Games.
Greece will be receiving European handouts over the next four years, but Greece’s finance minister Christos Pachtas wants to get the 2005-2006 funding early to allow transport to flow smoothly at the Olympic Games.
Meanwhile, Agence France-Presse reports that Athens Olympic Stadium was closed Monday night to undergo a monumental refurbishing, including a permanent cover above the stands designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.
Refurbishing of the 76,000-seat venue will last between 18 and 20 months and cost 217.1 million euros ($205.4 million).
By the end of August the new training facilities at the Athens seaside complex of Aghios Kosmos should be ready, and along with the stadium, refurbishing work is also being done at the already existing indoor stadium, tennis centre, swimming centre and velodrome.
The indoor stadium, which will host the basketball finals, seats 19,000 while the tennis centre now seats 6,000, but when renovated will seat 8,000.
The swimming centre will be expanded from the current 2,500-seat capacity to 6,000 seats, but the velodrome will remain at 5,000 seats.
Also, a construction worker at the 2004 Olympic Village died after being run over by a van at the site Monday.
It’s the third death at the village within the last year. Builders called a strike at the site Tuesday.
Representatives of the 1,500 workers at the venue have repeatedly complained of poor conditions. The accident is being investigated.
