London Olympics masterplan finalised

The masterplan for the London Olympics has been finalised, less than a year after that for the Singapore Games.

The revised masterplan "optimises layout of venues for Olympic and Paralympic athletes, and improves location, access and use of the Park's facilities for London and the UK after the Games". The plan retains the stadium, the Aquatics Centre and the Village, while hockey, cycling and tennis will be combined to form a sports and leisure hub in Waltham Forest for local communities.

The major changes are:

• Volleyball will be relocated from the Olympic Park to Earls Court.
• Volleyball's space in the Park will be taken by athlete training facilities.
• The media centre will move from Stratford City to a larger site at Hackney Wick.
• The velodrome and BMX track move south of the A12 to the area previously planned for hockey and paralympic tennis.
• Paralympic tennis and archery move to the site vacated by the velodrome.

Olympic Delivery Authority chief executive David Higgins said: "It is a major prize for the Olympic project to have a final site map for London 2012 at this stage, less than a year since Singapore. Detailed planning now is worth its weight in gold further down the track. This is a key building block for the project that allows us to move to the next stage of development - from site design to venue and infrastructure design alongside securing the necessary planning permissions."

* For more on 2012, come to the Contract Journal conference, Building for London, to be held at Lord’s Cricket Ground, London on 28 June. For more details email morag.allward@rbi.co.uk, or visit www.buildingforlondon.co.uk.