Olympic swimming venue's foundations to be laid today, two months ahead of schedule

Construction of the 2012 aquatics centre will start today, two months earlier than planned, the Olympic Delivery Authority has announced.

Work on the foundations of the Zaha Hadid-designed venue will be launched by Olympics minister Tessa Jowell, ODA chairman John Armitt, and Sebastian Coe, chair of the 2012 organising committee.

Armitt said: “Last April the ODA set out a series of challenging milestones we were aiming to achieve on the project by this summer, so that the public could judge the progress we are making.

“We have hit these deadlines in virtually every regard and exceeded them in some cases. We have started construction early on both the Olympic stadium and the aquatics centre, which will form a fantastic gateway to the Games and provide permanent world-class swimming and diving facilities for the capital.”

The ODA said it will publish today a new set of milestones for the coming year.

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