Construction on London’s Olympic Stadium is continuing with the installation of more than 100 large columns supporting what will be the podium for the west and south stands of the venue. The columns are each more than five metres high and will form the lower ground floor of the west stand, which contains change rooms and facilities, including doping control and treatment rooms, reports the Associated Press.
More than 3,500 of 4,000 concrete piles have been fitted said organizers Tuesday, meaning that work on the foundations is almost finished and should be completed this month.
Olympic Delivery Authority chairman John Armitt said, “as the eyes of the world turn from Beijing to London they will see that real progress is being made to create the new venues and infrastructure for the 2012 Games. The Olympic Stadium is already beginning to rise out of the ground and, over the coming months, we will begin to see the size and scale of this flagship venues”.
Meanwhile, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has reportedly signed a “Principles of Cooperation” with London 2012 officials which will “form the basis of positive partnership between the TUC and the organizations delivering London 2012 on areas such as training, equality, health and safety, and fair employment standards”.
The agreement is not legally blinding, according to contractjournal.com, and does not supersede the existing Memorandum of Agreement between the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and the construction unions or any existing national or workplace agreements.
ODA Chairman Armitt said, “these overarching principles build on our existing positive agreement with construction unions covering the work to deliver the venues and infrastructure for London 2012. They further demonstrate a shared commitment to not only deliver a huge and complex project on time and to budget but also to high health and safety standards with fair employment conditions an a real employment legacy for east London”.
