Olympic Park handover marked

The London 2012 Organising Committee and the London Legacy Development Corporation have marked the start of the handover of the Olympic Park, the centrepiece of the Games.

The programme of work to transform the Olympic Park site after the Games is well underway with LOCOG removing the temporary facilities that were necessary to make the Games happen.

In just six weeks since the Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony a significant proportion of the temporary overlay has already been removed from the Olympic Park.

The start of handover means that the LLDC have taken operational control of the Olympic Park (perimeter security, access control and logistics operations) and associated areas. The Legacy Corporation will then begin works to transform the Park into a new part of London, to be known as Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, through a £292m construction project.

LOCOG has phased handover dates for specific venues and spaces to the LLDC. The Aquatics Centre, the Velodrome and the Basketball Arena have now been handed over to LLDC, the Copper Box will be handed over in November and the Olympic Stadium and Press and Broadcast Centres will be handed over in December.

Meanwhile, LOCOG is also preparing to hand over the Olympic Village to the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) so that a large-scale retrofitting programme can begin, transforming the 2,818 apartments and houses into East Village – a new community for London from 2013 onwards.

The Legacy Corporation’s huge construction programme is called Clear, Connect, Complete . It will clear Games-time overlay including temporary venues, walkways and stands, connect the Park to the surrounding area with new roads and pathways and complete the Park’s venues to their legacy designs.

To help people to get onto the Park as quickly as possible, the Legacy Corporation has planned its works to enable the Park to begin to re-open in phases, from 27th July, 2013, as each piece of work reaches completion. The whole Park will be open by spring 2014.