Pylon removal starts as tunnels finished at Olympic park

Work began yesterday to remove the first of the 52 pylons that dominate the Olympic park landscape.

Over the past two years, two 6km tunnels have been built beneath the park to enable the power needed for the Games and legacy developments to be carried underground.

The final phase of the power lines contract began yesterday, with the removal of the 60m-high overhead pylons that run through the centre of the Olympic park site, stretching from Hackney to West Ham.

Olympics Delivery Authority chief executive David Higgins, Olympics minister Tessa Jowell, and London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games chairman Sebastian Coe visited the Olympic park site to view the removal of the first pylons.

“Removing the overhead pylons from the Olympic park site is a symbol of the huge change the Games is bringing to east London,” said Higgins.

“The pylons in the Olympic park will all be down by the end of the year, unlocking the area for the development of new homes, world-class sports venues and essential infrastructure. We are transforming the skyline of the Lower Lea Valley for good,” he added.

Jowell said: “The opportunity to regenerate the Lower Lea Valley is one of the principal reasons why we bid to host the Games in the first place.”

She added that the £250m project to dismantle and place the power lines underground was “graphic and tangible evidence of our delivering on that promise”.

A total of 130km of overhead wires will be removed. Work to remove the pylons on the outskirts of the park, towards Hackney and West Ham, will be completed in early 2009.