Olympic stadium will need repainting 'in five years'

The Olympic stadium will need to have its steelwork completely repainted after the games if it is to keep its seating capacity at 80,000, the engineer on the project has revealed.

Glyn Trippick, project director for the Olympic stadium at engineer Buro Happold, told delegates at an Olympic Learning Legacy event that if the structure, which was designed to be taken down after the Games, is kept it will need to be painted shortly after acquiring a new tenant.

The London Development Corporation, which has taken ownership of the stadium, is currently in talks with a number of bidders for legacy use of the stadium, including West Ham football club.

If the club is successful it is likely to want to keep the 55,000 temporary seats currently in place, rather than stripping it back to the 25,000 permanent seats.

Trippick said: “The stadium has only five years to its first maintenance [of its paintwork]. But if you wait for five to six years you will have to do much more.”

He said it had been more cost effective to give the stadium a short term paint job given the uncertainty over its future in legacy.

The stadium will also require further VIP hospitality facilities to be retro-fitted.

“In a top quality stadia around 20% of the seats generate 80% of the income,” said Trippick.