The Olympic Stadium is one of the 7 venue’s located within the Olympic park.
It’s the venue for the Athletics and Paralympic Athletics events at the London 2012 Games, as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
Lord Coe, Chairman LOCOG said:
“The Olympic Stadium will be the beating heart of the new Olympic Park and it is testament to the fantastic work put in by Team Stadium and the ODA that construction is complete, on time and within budget.”
What’s inside?
As well as the superb 400m running track, there are changing rooms, medical support facilities and an 80m warm-up track.
The capacity of the Stadium is 80,000.
The permanent lower tier has space for 25,000, and a lightweight steel and concrete upper tier holds a further 55,000 spectators. The upper tier can be taken away after the Games.
There are more than 700 rooms within the Stadium, including changing rooms and prayer rooms. The turf for the field of play was grown in Scunthorpe and was laid over a period of three days.
Just outside the stadium, there will be refreshments and stalls where spectators can buy souvenirs.
Design features
The architect is Populous. The Stadium is on an ‘island’ site, surrounded by waterways on three sides so spectators will walk across one of five bridges to reach the venue.
6,500 cubic metres of crushed concrete – recycled from other parts of the Olympic Park – was spread on top of the ground to create a solid platform for the Stadium’s construction.
10,000 tonnes of steel was used to build the venue. This is much less than the amounts used in other Olympic Stadiums.
Fourteen lighting towers are suspended on a cable net roof.
Part of the roof’s supporting structure is 2,500 tonnes of steel tubing recycled from old gas pipelines.
Problem solving
A hawk named Willow flies around the Stadium. Its job is to stop the pigeons from nesting!
What was here before?
More than 30 buildings were demolished on the site and over 800,000 tonnes of soil was taken away before construction could begin – enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall nine times over.
After the Games
It will be the home of West Ham United Football Club and Newham Council.
Watch this:
Spotlight on the Stadium – includes information on design features at the Olympic Stadium
The Stadium, one year into construction
Willow the Stadium hawk – how the bird of prey deters the pigeons from nesting in the Stadium
A few more number crunching facts…
The total Stadium island site covers an area of 40 acres – it is surrounded by water on three sides.
The shape of the Stadium is an ellipse with a long axis of 315m and a short axis of 256m. It stands at 60m in height above the field of play and the perimeter is 860m.
The cable net roof helps to keep the conditions just right for the athletes. The roof will also cover two-thirds of spectators. The roof is covered by 112 panels of white material, totalling 25,000.The fabric was fitted by a team of 23 expert abseilers.
More than 5,000 reinforced concrete columns were installed into the ground, up to 20m deep, to provide the foundations to support the Stadium structure.
The Stadium is lit by 532 individual floodlights shining 70m above the field of play.
