Olympics to Sprint Ahead With Workforce of 6,000

The construction workforce for the 2012 Olympics in London is to double to 6,000 in the next 12 months in a move that ministers hope will offset widespread redundancies in the building industry caused by the economic downturn.

The acceleration in work on the east London site comes with the start of buildings including the velodrome, media center and a 10,000-seat handball arena. Work on the roofs of the main stadium and aquatics centre, the two centerpiece venues, will also start this year and mature trees will be planted on the Olympic park.

But the increase in manpower comes amid fears of insolvencies among contractors that could still knock "the big build" off course, despite some work being ahead of schedule.

David Higgins, the chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority, warned that bankruptcies are "an obvious risk" to the program. "Where you get caught is if you have a big exposure to one or two organizations that get themselves seriously into trouble," he said. "We are taking as many checks as we possibly can."

The authority has contracted more that 800 firms to carry out £3.5bn of work and has reduced its payment times in an attempt to stave off potential financial problems among the companies. Olympic officials believe main contractors on the principal facilities such as the 80,000-seat stadium and aquatics center are well-financed, but insolvency among smaller firms working on the games is a concern.

"The Olympic park is already Europe's biggest construction project and 2009 will see a huge acceleration in activity with all major construction projects under way," said Higgins. "The delivery of this unprecedented project has already created more than 3,000 jobs and the increase in work this year will see our workforce double, creating thousands more jobs and providing a shot in the arm for the economy ... The creation of jobs in traditional trades such as carpentry and bricklaying, together with our focus on training, mean we will also help contribute to a lasting legacy of a newly skilled workforce to continue delivering projects around the country."

In the busiest phase, next year, there will be 9,000 workers. This year the most obvious progress on a project that is twice the size of Heathrow's Terminal 5, delivered in half the time, will be the erection of the roof structure on the main stadium which will be visible from central London. That project is currently three months ahead of schedule, but others appear less secure.

Funding from banks and private developers has yet to be agreed on the athletes' village and a £95m bailout from the government to keep foundation works going will run out in March. A deal with the Australian developer Lend Lease is expected to be announced by then, but Olympic organisers believe there will have to be more taxpayers' money invested in the £900m project, with the possibility that it could be totally publicly funded.

The authority also faces a decision over whether to build a temporary venue for shooting at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich or to use existing facilities at Bisley in Surrey or other sites within an hour's drive of the Olympic village. It emerged from an audit of proposals by the accountancy firm KPMG that the original plans were on course to cost more than allowed in the authority's budget.

At the northern edge of the park, work is due to start on the foundations of the velodrome following a long clean-up of the ground, which used to be a rubbish dump. The velodrome has been designed with the input of Chris Hoy, the triple gold medal-winning cyclist.

By July this year, construction will have begun on the new perimeter security fence and the refurbishment of the waterways which criss-cross the park will be complete.

Away from the east London campus, construction will start on the whitewater canoing venue at Broxbourne on the edge of the Lee Valley regional park in Hertfordshire.