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Over the last few months, the country has been waiting in anticipation for the start of the Olympic Games. For the last few weeks, talk of athletes, sports and medal tables has dominated everything from the newspapers to office chat. As we watch our UK Olympians through their highs and lows, have you ever considered the work behind the amazing venues that allow these games to go ahead?
London 2012
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In 2012 when we saw the world descend on the UK for the Olympic Games, London had constructed a £469 million Olympic park. In just 4 years, over 5000 people worked on the construction of the stadium to remove 800,000 tonnes of soil during the excavation process! Since the 2000 games in Sydney, there’s been a heavy focus on ensuring that the construction work for the games are as environmentally friendly as possible, reusing material such as integrating surplus steel originally intended for use on a Russian pipeline (source
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park).
Bid for Rio Olympic Park plan
Back in 2006, the Brazilian Olympic Committee selected Rio de Janeiro as its bidding city to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic games. Rio was then announced as successful in their bid in 2009 in order for preparations to begin. Following the release of a brief for the project, entries were submitted for the ‘International Competition for the Urban General Plan of the Rio 2016 Olympic Park’. The winning company, AECOM were given 1.18 million square meters with the requirement for this area to hold 15 different types of sport during the Olympics. The plan put together by AECOM included 3 stages - games, transition and legacy to ensure viability of new enterprises. Upon completion of both the Olympic and Paralympic games, the buildings will be renamed the ‘Olympic Training Centre’ and assist with the development of future sporting talents. The budget for the development of this project was set at £5.1 billion.
Progression of the build
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Last year, with only 365 days to go under the games and many of the 14 venues still to be built, many began to question if the deadline would be met. Not only did the plans require buildings, but also road systems (43 miles worth!), bridges, underpasses and a dedicated bus line with stations for those travelling to the Park. Not only were there many doubts about finishing the construction work, the outbreak of the Zika Virus hit worldwide news, gaining more attention with many fighting for the games to be called off as well as many homes being flattened to make way for the new construction work. With only a few months to go, even an official visit from the International Olympic Committee resulted in the release of a statement suggesting it had doubts about whether the required deadlines would be met.
The Finished Product
The lead up to the Rio Olympic games has been a tumultuous one with a mix of accelerated deadlines to meet infrastructure deadlines, political unrest and environmental concerns along with doping allegations making continuation of the games questionable right up to the opening ceremony. The finished stadiums and sites span over a total of 32 venues and it is thought the overall cost, including 60% of construction costs covered by private funds, totals $7.07bn. Most of these funds have been concentrated in the Barra neighborhood, home to the Athletes Village. The aquatics stadium is also ranked as one of the biggest construction projects of the games. The finished setup is incredibly impressive and with plans already in place, post-games, the development that has taken place as a result of the games should sustain and assist with economic growth and improved living conditions.
And well done Team GB for all the medals achieved!
