377 replies to this topic

[bearcrossuk]

arwebb, on Apr 22 2008, 12:27 PM, said:

Hard courts at Wimbledon? Sacrilege!

It will never happen

that said there will be a movable roof over Centre Court

[arwebb]

And that is long overdue in my opinion. As long as the one on Centre works, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see one on Court One as well by 2012.

[RobH]

though (touch wood), I hope there'll be no need for them in 2012!

[arwebb]

Hopefully not, but I can't see it happening.

[Sir Rols]

Interesting article on the regeneration:

Quote

By Alex Morales
May 20 (Bloomberg) -- At the 2012 London Olympics site, five 35-ton washing machines are rumbling away, removing arsenic and tar from more than 1.5 million tons of earth.
The city's largest cleanup since World War II is part of what Dan Epstein, head of sustainability for London's Olympic Delivery Authority, calls the ``legacy'' of the games.
``The big prize is to regenerate an area of London the size of Exeter,'' said Epstein, referring to a city in southwest England with 120,000 residents. ``We took over an incredibly contaminated site.''
Construction of the 80,000-seat main stadium, scheduled to begin May 22, has created Europe's biggest building site. The decision to transform industrial land, soaked with chemicals and dotted with warehouses, helped London win the games and stirred debate among residents and environmentalists.
Clearing the site will cost 364 million pounds ($708 million). The total budget, funded by local and central governments and national lottery money, has ballooned to 9.3 billion pounds, almost triple original estimates.
Before the work started, the 246-hectare site in Stratford, east London, had more than 220 buildings, two disused landfills and 52 pylons. After the games, the area will have 10,000 homes and the largest park built in a European capital city for 150 years, says Epstein.
His team of 16 organizers is ``focused on trying to get the greenest games ever,'' Epstein said. The effort includes generating wind energy, minimizing greenhouse gas emissions and sourcing timber from sustainable forests.
Manhole Covers
More than 90 percent of the material from demolished buildings will be used to build the new sports facilities. Salvaged lamp-posts and manhole covers will be incorporated into sculptures in the park.
Organizers must ensure the development leaves a lasting legacy beyond 2012, said Andrew Boff, a Conservative Party member of the London Assembly.
``The costs have wildly varied since the start of the process,'' said Boff. ``If all the Olympics give us is a lovely warm feeling as a memory years afterwards, then we've got to ask ourselves, `Was it worth the 9.3 billion?' If as a result we get improved public services, improved opportunities for some of the poorest communities in the country, we can look back and say it was a job well done. It isn't guaranteed.''
Wildlife is part of the project. The Olympic Delivery Authority, set up by the government to build the venues, moved 1,698 smooth newts and 110 common toads from the site to a new pond a mile to the north, in the Lee Valley Regional Park, said Simon Wightman, the park's biodiversity manager.
Cycle Track
After the games, the 26-mile-long park will be extended two miles to the River Thames.
Still, developers have ejected from the site some users who are normally associated with so-called green lifestyles: cyclists and people who grew fruit and vegetables on allotments -- which are patches of land leased to individuals for cultivation -- at Manor Gardens.
``Sustainability was supposed to be a cornerstone of the games,'' said Julia Sumner, who held one of the 83 allotments. ``Demolishing us was not a very good signal for the future.''
More than 7,500 people had petitioned for Manor Gardens to be kept. Original plans didn't include alternatives for Eastway, a cycle track that was razed, said Michael Humphreys, chairman of Eastway Users' Group. Then, the Ramney Marsh site suggested by organizers didn't come up to scratch.
Greenhouse Gas
``These people don't seem to have had the interests of grassroots sport at heart,'' Humphreys said. The eventual compromise cycling site, at Hog Hill, is yet to open, 17 months after the Eastway track closed.
``People are always going to be unhappy,'' said Epstein, adding that the cyclists and gardeners will have facilities after 2012. ``Nobody wants to move and it's a huge inconvenience.''
After the games, the athletes' village will be turned into 4,000 homes, and 6,000 more will be built. They'll be constructed with insulation and other features that ensure greenhouse gas emissions are 20 percent less than from a ``conventional 2006 development,'' Epstein said.
Electricity will come partly from a 2.2-megawatt wind turbine and a power plant that heats water with the excess warmth from generating electricity.
A total of 8.5 kilometers of waterways are being cleaned and dredged, and 110 hectares, or 45 percent, of the site will become park after 2012. That will improve an impoverished part of London, Epstein said.
The borough of Newham, home to the Olympic site, is the sixth most deprived part of England, according to the government's deprivation index, which combines social, economic and housing indicators.
``We're not just cleaning it up, we're making it more accessible,'' he said. ``It'll be an example of how you need to develop these sites in the future.''

[RobH]

Interesting article and some huge statistics here which sum up the scale of what's going on:

• The big prize is to regenerate an area of London the size of Exeter,'' said Epstein, referring to a city in southwest England with 120,000 residents.
  
• Before the work started, the 246-hectare site in Stratford, east London, had more than 220 buildings, two disused landfills and 52 pylons. After the games, the area will have 10,000 homes and the largest park built in a European capital city for 150 years
  
• After the games, the 26-mile-long park will be extended two miles to the River Thames.
  
• A total of 8.5 kilometers of waterways are being cleaned and dredged, and 110 hectares, or 45 percent, of the site will become park after 2012

[arwebb]

And this just goes to show the sheer scale of what is being done. It is not simply a sporting festival and the numbers for simply staging the sporting festival are much lower. This is a once in a couple of lifetimes regeneration project.

[james]

We have be told here over and over again that hosting big sports games don`t bring development. So, what should we call this once in a life time regeneration to that part of London?

[arwebb]

Who said that?

[james]

If only you agree with me that development is prosperity and advancement.

You can check up the post #290 in this link:

http://www.gamesbids.com/forums/index.php?...9686&st=280