Construction work is now underway on the permanent new bridges to be built in the Olympic Park, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) announced yesterday.

The work will see the construction of more than 30 new bridges in the Olympic Park to create new connections across the site and leave an open and accessible area in legacy.

Balfour Beatty, one of the ODA's structures, bridges and highways contractors, has now started work on the foundations of a permanent new bridge in the centre of the Olympic Park. The bridge will span over Carpenters Road to create an essential link for construction traffic between the north and south of the site. The bridge will then become an important part of the central pedestrian concourse through the middle of the Olympic Park in Games time and legacy.

The start of works saw 290 cubic metres of concrete poured to create the first foundations for the abutments of the bridge. Once the foundations and bridge abutments are in place, 23 metre-long steel beams will be lifted into place to form the deck of the bridge which will be operational for construction traffic from November this year.

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Balfour Beatty will also begin works later this summer on the huge land bridge that will be the gateway to the Games, taking people from Stratford International and Stratford Regional Stations into the Olympic Park. The land-bridge will form part of the roof of the Aquatics Centre and will be delivered by Balfour Beatty as part of its Aquatics Centre contract.

Abutment works on the Stratford City side of the bridge were completed last year and Balfour Beatty will begin work later this summer on the bridge abutments within the Olympic Park.

ODA Director of Infrastructure and Utilities Simon Wright said: "The start of bridgeworks is a significant moment and shows we are planning for legacy from the very beginning as we start to create the backbone of the Olympic Park and a platform for future development.

"Building new bridges and roads is a crucial element across the life of the project, from creating new links across the site for construction activity, to delivering an open and accessible park during the Games, and forming new links between local communities in legacy."

The site of the Olympic Park is made up of fragmented pockets of land, and in the past has suffered from poor connections between local communities. The structures, bridges and highways project will see more than 30 bridges and 20km of roads built in and around the Olympic Park to create new connections across the site.

(JM)