Game on

We now have the splendid prospect of the world’s greatest sporting event in our own backyard – and quite apart from the spectacle of the athletics, we have the intriguing prospect of gymnastics in the Dome, archery at Lord’s and, of course, beach volleyball on Horseguard’s Parade.

Before the athletes demonstrate their sporting prowess, the organisers must show off their skill in preparing the infrastructure for the games, and in extracting every last drop of collateral benefit

for the Thames Gateway. For the construction industry, the win provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to step onto the world stage and show what magnificent sports facilities it can design and build. And without wanting to sound too mercenary, the games also offer a once-in-a-lifetime workload bonanza.

But as the opportunities are immense, so are the challenges – the debacle of Picketts Lock, the Millennium Dome and Wembley stadium illustrate the dangers. Those three projects are dwarfed by the scale of what is now required. In the run-up to 2012, London has to construct a 20,000-seat aquatics centre, an 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium, a 17,000-bed Olympic village and £6bn of roads, bridges and rail extensions. The Olympic Park alone will be served by 10 train lines, including the “Olympic Javelins” that will take seven minutes to reach the city centre.

All of which raises questions about the industry’s capacity, particularly if the games prove to be the catalyst for commercial schemes stuck on the drawing board. But against that, one has to remember that a number of major projects such as Terminal 5, Wembley stadium and the CTRL will be completed before the main Olympic construction schedule kicks in, and public sector spending could well be on the wane by then.

Although the bulk of the spending will go on infrastructure and would have been spent whether we got the games or not, working to a fixed deadline brings its own pressures and demands – remember the Jubilee Line Extension and its 2000 deadline? Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday, management consultant David James, the Tories’ efficiency guru, was questioning whether Britain would be able to deliver the games to budget.

But come on. Surely we can afford to be more optimistic than that. Two of the main delivery vehicles – Transport for London and the London Development Agency – have already got the ball rolling and the Strategic Forum has set up a task group to work with them. Tony Blair has appointed Tessa Jowell to take charge of preparations and an Olympic Delivery Agency will be created to oversee the project. One vital ingredient may be missing, though: a high-powered construction adviser who would answer to the minister and make sure everything is co-ordinated like a

gold-medal-winning relay team. We can’t afford to drop the baton because a utility firm can’t install water or electricity on time. Seb Coe’s magnificent leadership brought the Olympic torch to London and showed what determination, self-belief and teamwork could achieve. Now we need a construction supremo who’ll do for the physical delivery of the facilities what he did for the bid.