Inside the 2012 Olympic Park

By M@ Last edited 179 months ago

M@ Inside the 2012 Olympic Park

The Aquatic Centre rises like a roller coaster from the Stratford mud. Image by Duncan Young.

Aquatics Centre with one of the branches of the River Lea in the foreground. Note the coffer dam, in place while the river bank is moved a few metres in. Image by Duncan Young.

Aquatics Centre from another angle. Image by Duncan Young.

A piling rig sits in front of the emergent Stratford City development. Image by Duncan Young.

The now familiar stadium. Image by Duncan Young.

A close-up of the Stadium. Image by Duncan Young.

A peer inside the stadium, where much of the seating support is already in place. Image by Duncan Young.

The lift cores for the Athletes' Village rise above Stratford. Image by M@

With thanks to the New Media team at the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. Image by Duncan Young.

Stockpiles of remediated mud cover the site. 1.3 million tonnes of soil has to be washed and treated with bacteria to remove contamination. Image by M@

More pipes than a pixelated Italian plumber could shake a wrench at. Image by Duncan Young.

Here's one of the machines that washes all the soil. Image by Duncan Young.

A new landmark emerges in front of familiar ones. Image by M@.

It's one year today since construction began on the Olympic Park at Stratford. Driving through the vast building site yesterday, the progress is apparent and staggering. The stadium, of course, is already a significant landmark on the East London skyline. But other buildings are also appearing. Zaha Hadid's Aquatic Centre stands like a rickety roller coaster close by. The multi-storey cores of the Athlete's Village tower over the East of the site. And the Olympic power plant, due for completion this year, is also well advanced. The site receives around one delivery every 12 seconds, and each vehicle must be registered at least 24 hours in advance. Yesterday, we were on one of those vehicles.

The New Media Team at the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games invited a bus full of bloggers on a drive-through tour of the immense building site. Fellow scribblers Diamond Geezer, Jane's London, Ian Visits and Onionbagblogger give detailed accounts (the latter captured the entire commentary on audio) so we won't give a lengthy description here. Instead, here's a photo gallery and a couple of videos.