There are fewer than 1,500 days left until the opening ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. In that time a new aquatics centre will be built, Alexander Stadium will undergo a £70m overhaul, a £350m athletes’ village will be developed and innumerable infrastructure projects will be carried out. It’s a race against the clock.

In the words of Simon Marks, Arcadis’ city executive for Birmingham: “It is a staggering amount of work to be completed in a relatively short amount of time. It’s not very many days really, given what we’ve got to do.”

To put the scale of the task in perspective, Birmingham was confirmed as host on 21 December last year, just four years and seven months before the Games kick off. In contrast, Glasgow was awarded the 2014 event in November 2007, and Manchester was handed the 2002 Games back in 1995.

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