Barge delivery delays cause problems for Olympics

Plans to deliver tonnes of material to the Olympic site by barge have been sunk by delays in opening up east London's waterways.

Olympic Delivery Authority chiefs revealed plans 12 months ago to bring in between 500t and 1,000t of aggregates every day by boat.

But Contract Journal understands that only a handful of test deliveries have been made by barge during the last year.

Deliveries by river have been hampered by delays in opening a crucial lock at the Prescott Channel. The lock is due to become fully operational on Friday following months of delay caused by contaminated land and the discovery of a WW2 bomb.

Olympic chiefs hope the new lock will open the floodgates to more deliveries by barge.

But local maritime experts are worried they have already lost too much ground to rail freight operators.

David Allen at shipping firm Allen C Bennett & Sons said: "The lock was plagued with problems which has meant hardly any deliveries by water for a year.

"We're not too optimistic about getting work now because we have missed 12 months while the groundworks have been going on.

"Also the price of secondary aggregates has plummeted along with the cost of road haulage and there are six trains a day going in there which is a huge amount."

ODA chiefs are keen to stress they are still hitting their environmental targets because both rail and water deliveries are classified as sustainable transport methods.

A spokesman said: "The Olympic Park clean up and 'Big Build' is setting new standards in sustainable construction. The ODA is on track to meet our target of transporting more than 50% of construction materials by weight in and out of the Olympic Park by rail or water.

"Currently the target is being exceeded predominantly using rail and some small barges bringing materials to the Aquatics Centre and Olympic Stadium sites. In a matter of weeks, larger barges will be able to access the Olympic Park when the new lock is fully operational and the dredging of the waterways is complete."