Construction Of London Olympic Stadium To Start Early

Construction of London's 2012 Olympic Stadium is to start three months ahead of schedule, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) said on Tuesday.

An ODA spokesperson confirmed that as work clearing the site had been completed earlier than expected; building work would be pushed forward to start in May.

"We have investigated the Olympic Stadium site, demolished tens of buildings and excavated 800,000 tonnes of soil," ODA chairman John Armitt said."Now that we have finished the work to dig the bowl, where the opening and closing ceremony and athletics will take place in 2012, we are firmly on track to start construction work ahead of schedule."

The stadium, which will cost 496 million pounds, will be the focal point of the Olympic Park which is being built on former industrial land in east London.The 2.5-square-km park will also house the Aquatics Centre, theVelodrome, the hockey, fencing, basketball and handball arenas and the international media centre.

After the Games the stadium will be scaled back to 25,000 seats. It will retain a permanent athletics track, although no long-term tenant has yet been found.