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The Countdown Begins
In a mere three years, London, England will host the Summer Olympics.
But the prep work for the big event wouldn’t get too far without a power
supply—and the power source in place was a tangled mess of wires. So
in 2006, a £250 million project to bury all those unsightly lines kicked off
at Olympic Park. The site of the main stadium, Olympic Park is being
billed as the largest public construction project in Europe.
UNLOCKING THE SKYLINE
The team didn’t just lay the cable that will power the entire area.
It set the stage for future projects in the park by removing the
mess of existing power lines and pylons, the steel towers that support the high wires.
“The ongoing presence of the overhead pylons would have started to impede other critical works at the Olympic Park, either
through occupying land earmarked for other buildings or by the overhead lines impeding the cranes and plant equipment needed
for construction work,” says Mark Thurston, head of power lines projects for the Olympic Delivery Authority. “Removing the
overhead lines literally unlocked the Olympic Park skyline for construction work to accelerate.”
BOOKING THE BLACKOUTS
Switching the power from the overhead lines into underground tunnels
meant power outages—and those had to be booked two years in advance.
“We were really faced with immovable deadlines,” says Terry
MacDonald, power lines project manager for the London Development
Agency.
ALL IN THE DETAILS
Removing the structures within the park
was an extremely complex process because
roads, rivers and railway lines crisscross
the landscape. So the team went in with a
plan.
“We had an agreed ‘mini’ program for the
removal of each pylon—the date the land
would be available for site setup, the start and
finish dates for pylon dismantling, and a date
for returning the land to the next contractor,”
says Mr. Thurston. “This was managed in
detail with each power company and its contractor on a week-to-week basis until all
pylons were removed.”
EARTHQUAKES,
FLOODS AND
CONTAMINATION
With the pylons removed, the team
headed underground, digging the
13 kilometers (eight miles) of tunnels
and 10 deep shafts to accommodate
the cable.
“We encountered a series of
obstacles along the way, including
issues with soil contamination,
small ground movements and
water ingresses beneath the surface of the Olympic Park,” Mr.
MacDonald says.
“The results speak
for themselves.
We delivered a
huge project in
half the time [that
has] ever been
done before, with
an impressive
safety record.
And we delivered
it to budget and
to quality.
—Terry MacDonald,
London Development Agency,
London, England
”
Remove
52 pylons and 130
kilometers ( 81 miles)
of overhead electricity lines
Build
13 kilometers
(eight miles)
of tunnels along with 10 deep shafts
Install
200 kilometers
(124.3 miles)
of cable in the tunnels
