The first of the Olympic Stadium’s lighting towers has been successfully lifted into place, taking the venue to its full height – 60m above the field of play.
The lighting towers will light up the field of play and are needed for high definition (HD) footage. They are located above the stadium roof to ensure the best lighting angles and to avoid dazzling spectators, photographers and competitors.
Olympic Delivery Authority Chairman John Armitt said: ‘The Olympic Stadium will be at the heart of the action in 2012 and its image will be beamed to billions of people across the world. The team has made impressive progress over the last year and we are on schedule to finish by the summer of 2011 to give a year for Test Events.
‘The lifting of the lighting towers is a significant engineering and construction challenge and has taken a huge amount of work and planning, complicated by the snow, wind and rain. Once all 14 towers have been lifted the venue will be another huge step closer to completion.’
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the Olympiad, are scheduled to take place in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. London will become the first city to officially host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and in 1948.
Maidenhead is very excited about the Olympics because of a venue near by. Newlands Girls’ Schools Olympic Committee member Lauren said “I think the Olympics is a fantastic opportunity and I think it is worth it, however 12 billion pounds is a very large investment, so there are also many disadvantages, such as whether the money could be spent on other things instead”.
PE teacher, Miss Hearn, told us her views on the Olympics 2012; “I believe the Olympics is a fascinating opportunity, it will put on a show for the rest of the world. It will also inspire us as a nation.”
Lastly the sixth formers said, “The Olympics is going to have a huge impact on the local community after the Olympics, some facilities will be open to the public also it will bring a lot of profit to the area.”