2012 Olympics round-up

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is hoping that work on the acquatics centre will begin next July, two months ahead of schedule. The move mirrors the expected early start on the main stadium, which has been brought forward from the middle of next Summer to April.

Sole acquatics centre bidder Balfour Beatty submitted its tender last month, with an initial bid thought to be as high as £250m, reported Construction News.

Building magazine revealed that Olympic bosses are in talks to create an organisation to oversee the regeneration of the lower Lea Valley after the games.

The London Development Agency (LDA), which owns much of the development land, has just taken on the man credited with regenerating a large part of east Manchester after the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Tom Russell, now the ex-CEO of urban regeneration company New East Manchester, will begin work as group director of Olympic legacy in January, said Building.

Contract Journal (CJ) reported that as of next year contractors on the 2012 Olympics will be contractually bound to advertise deals to new subcontractors if they do not have an established supply chain partner.

Part of an ODA push to open up the Games to smaller firms, the initiative will be launched on the ODA website in 2008, enabling companies to register and part-qualify for work with Tier 1 contractors, said CJ.

The ODA's head of procurement, Morag Stuart, said that while contractors would be likely to use established supply chain partners, she believed there will be about 50,000 contracts outside the Tier 1 contracts, and around 30% of those opportunities will be advertised on the website.