Our magnificent Olympic Stadium in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park right here in Stratford, East London is about to get a makeover. With the venue and the locale already enjoying great success as a busy events venue post-games, the stadium is to get a brand new roof. Initially, the existing roof and lighting towers will be removed, before the new roof is built. Constructed in the stadium itself and coming in at over £40m to build, the new roof will be assembled on the ground before being hoisted up into place, as one huge element, by a network of large cranes each capable of lifting over 600 tonnes. This magnificent engineering feat will be completed by Balfour Beatty and with work expected to start imminently, the new roof should be in place by the spring of 2015. That may seem like a long time to build a roof, but consider this: it will take the Balfour Beatty team four months just to dismantle the existing roof! That already takes us in to 2014 and so early 2015 looks like a sensible date. Initially we were worried that our iconic stadium would lose it’s character and appeal with the canvas and lighting rigs that have come to symbolise our vista here at Attic Storage, but our fear was misplaced; the new roof will combine solid and transparent materials to double the amount of protection offered by the current roof. All those soccer players and music stars will be able to play to a crowd kept happily at bay from the traditional English weather! Mrs Atticus wondered if we would be providing storage units to the contractors, but when I pointed out that one lighting rig triangle and it’s associated structures and roof canvas would fill our car park, she wondered off with nothing more than a “hmph” that made me feel as if our 20-space car park and 45,000sq ft warehouse were somehow inadequate. I don’t think our self storage clients will mind so much though!
Posted on 15th July 2013 by Sophie Bagnall | Last updated on 18th July 2024
