News

DEC UK: Olympic park clean-up on track as 'big build' gets underway

The unprecedented Olympic Park clean-up is nearly completed after three years, beating its tough sustainability targets and allowing the construction of all permanent Olympic Park venues to start on or ahead of schedule.

The ‘big build’ is now ramping up with work underway on these venues and other infrastructure in the area.

Contaminated over decades of industrial use, more than 640, 000 cubic metres of contaminated soil over the 2.5km² area was cleaned and reused on site. The use of sustainable techniques minimised the amount of contaminated material taken to landfill, which included oil, petrol and tar.

ODA Director of Infrastructure and Utilities Simon Wright commented on this “major milestone”, with Rosemary Redmond, Environment Agency Olympic Delivery Project Manager, conferring: “the 2012 Olympic development is breathing new life into a part of east London.”

More than 200 buildings were demolished with 97% of materials recycled, beating the 90% target. The clean-up also refurbished over 5km of riverbanks, uncovered pre-historic, Roman and Victorian history and included an ecological plan to create over 1 hectare of new wildlife habitat on Hackney Marshes.

September 2009
Source: http://www.nce.co.uk