London: Olympic Stadium’s new roof more expensive?

source: Sky.com; author: michał

London: Olympic Stadium’s new roof more expensive? Sky News reports the conversion of Olympic Stadium’s roof will cost £15 million more. This would bring the total price tag beyond £600 million and that’s hard to bear for many critics.

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As the reconfiguration of London Olympic Stadium goes forward, more questions arise as to its final cost. Recent news by renowned Paul Kelso of Sky News is disturbing as the troubled stadium may prove even more costly, while already criticized widely for its doubtful legacy.

The potential cost increase of up to £15 million is a result of additional work required to strengthen the stadium structure to bear the weight of the new roof. The cover will be much wider than initial one, which was planned as temporary only.

London Olympic Stadium

The revelation is so far unconfirmed as contractor Balfour Beatty is working on a signed £154 million deal. London Legacy Development Company promise to hold contractor to the deal, but Beatty are supposedly going to ask for additional funds anyway.

Andrew Boff, leader of the Conservative group in the Greater London Assembly, said any further increase would lead to cuts elsewhere.

He said: "The whole promise of the Olympics was to bring a legacy for London.

"So if we are now saying that it is going to cost us £15m more, then it is less of the legacy, less of the housing that we need, less of the green space that we need as a result of this stupid roof they've decided to put on a stadium that doesn't work for football or anything."

Criticism over how the project was planned and carried out is nothing new. Nearly none of the early promises were left in London. What was supposed to be cheaper than the Beijing National Stadium proves roughly twice more expensive. What was supposed to be a 25,000 athletic stadium will be a 54,000 football ground with extremely compromised sightlines for fans.

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