Olympic site clean-up completed | Sport. Work to clean up the Olympic site in Stratford, east London, and create the largest urban park in Britain for more than 100 years has been completed, the Environment Agency has said. An area the size of 297 football pitches, much of which was polluted, has been cleaned up, with 300,000 wetland plants and 2,000 native trees planted and five miles of the river Lea restored. The Environment Agency, which has worked with the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), the London Development Agency and other partners on the site said it had helped the ODA decontaminate 2m tonnes of soil so it could be reused.
On the river Lea, invasive species including Japanese knotweed, Himalayan balsam and floating pennywort have been removed, along with concrete walls, to improve the river habitat for wildlife and users. Some 22 miles of cycleways and footpaths have been put in and 44 hectares (110 acres) of land has been turned into reed beds, wet woodlands, grassland and ponds to attract wildlife, the agency said. Costs. As is common knowledge, the costs incurred to redevelop the Olympic Park, other venues and infrastructure and public transport facilities are not included in the cost for hosting the games. These costs are generally covered by the money of the public while the hosting costs are privately funded. In March 2007, Tessa Jowell made an announcement in the House of Commons that the budget for redeveloping the venues and infrastructure for the games will be £5.3 billion. She further announced that a £1.7 billion budget will be allotted to the wider development of the Lower Lea Valley.
The total cost for the redevelopment of East London and the hosting of the Olympic Games amounts to £9.345 billion including the contingency fund, policing costs, Paralympic and elite sport funding and the VAT. Following the complaints, the Funders’ Group agreed in November 2007, to have a baseline scope and budget which is proposed by the Olympic Delivery Authority. Post 2012 transformation. The plans involve the removal of temporary venues from the Olympic Park after the Paralympics, such as the Basketball Arena. Balfour Beatty will also remove the temporary seating from the Aquatics Centre, leaving 2,500 seats for future use. The Olympic sStadium’s new occupier is yet to be confirmed, with four parties including West Ham United still in the running, but the LLDC has appointed Greenwich Leisure Limited to run the Aquatics Centre and the Copper Box handball venue, as well as awarding housebuilder Taylor Wimpey the right to build almost 1,000 new homes in the Olympic Park.
The LLDC will take control of the Olympic Park between October 23 and November 23, and plans to open the renamed Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park next July. The £292m project, whose funding is part of the existing Olympic budget, has been called Clear, Connect, Complete. In total, about 20 companies are involved in taking down temporary venues, including engineering consultant WS Atkins. London Plan. East London Factsheet. Map for regeneration.