Balfour Beatty Completes London 2012 Aquatics Centre

Balfour Beatty has completed the £269m Aquatics Centre in Stratford, London, which will be used for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The sixth permanent Olympic venue to be completed so far, the Aquatics Centre was designed by Zaha Hadid and developed by Balfour Beatty. It will serve as the main entrance to the Olympic Games.

The centre features a 160m × 90m sweeping roof, a steel structure weighing more than 3,000t with an aluminium covering, half of which is recycled, which rests on three supports.

The facility can accommodate 17,500 spectators during the games, with the capacity planned to be reduced to 2,500 after the games.

The centre has room to house 1,000 additional seats for key events, a pair of swimming pools measuring 50m each, a diving pool as well as a dry diving zone.

The centre is also fitted with an under-floor heating system.

Construction on the project started in June 2008 and it has been completed on time and on budget.