Olympics 2012 round-up

Sole 2012 acquatics centre bidder Balfour Beatty wants over £40m more than the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is willing to pay for the work.

Sources close to the negotiations told Building magazine that the ODA is determined to keep the cost of the building down to between £160m and £170m, but that's about £40m lower than the contractor's reported bid price of £213m.

A key point of contention is the delivery time. The ODA wants it completed by summer 2011 ready for a year of test events, but Balfour claims an early delivery could not be completed within a reduced budget.

Meanwhile, eager to bring external expertise to 2012, ODA officials have been meeting with their BAA counterparts to discuss management tips following the completion of T5, reported Construction News (CN).

BAA capital projects director Andrew Wolstenholme and ODA chief executive David Higgins met earlier this month to discuss risk management and handling thousands of contracted staff. As well as employing 5,000 more workers than T5 - 15,000 compared to 10,000 - the Olympics will have to deliver double the infrastructure in half the time, said CN.

'Everyone recognises that we have learnt lots of lessons and that these are transferable. T5 and the Olympics also happen to share some of the same supply chain. They will be able to understand how we managed the people and how to develop a safety culture,' said Wolstenholme.

Contract Journal revealed the ODA's new 2012 recruitment strategy, which will see one in five workers employed as either an apprentice or a trainee. The scheme will mean at the peak of construction nearly 2,000 of the 9,000-10,000 strong workforce will be new recruits.

Revealing the strategy, ODA chairman John Armitt said women and local unemployed will be specifically targeted to fill vacancies.