Client
LOCOG
Location
In 2012 London hosted the world’s biggest sporting festival with events being staged in some historic and iconic places around the capital, which had to be protected from being harmed or even destroyed while still providing the stable ground needed for elite sports.
The challenge
We were tasked with finding 55,000 metres of trackway for the largest sporting event in the world – in under two months. This flooring solution would help to create gigantic temporary parks at each of the sports venues, to enable park and ride services for the hundreds of thousands of visitors attending.
The trackway also had to create access roads robust enough to support cranes, vehicles and heavy machinery, as well as provide safe pedestrian access. And when this flooring came to be removed, each site needed to return to as close to its original condition as possible.
Our solution
The 55,000 metres of trackway that was required is equivalent to five times the area of Wembley Stadium – and there were seven weeks until the opening ceremony. After scouring Europe we were able to find 35,000 metres of trackway (20,000 short). But we also found a solution.
Of course, events weren’t all taking place at the same time; so we realised that, with some careful logistics, we could pick up and move the trackway from venue to venue. The venue at Lea Valley was the most urgent location: 2,500 panels (10,000 square metres of road) had to be installed there by 10.30pm on the night of the opening ceremony. When that flooring was no longer needed, we were able to extract the panels with little disturbance to the site, and transport them across London to Eton Dorney (just in time for the rowing events to begin).
Outcomes
This project really opened our eyes to the true potential of temporary flooring. When it comes to transforming areas of ground for large scale public events, and then returning them to their former glory a few days or weeks later, temporary flooring is invaluable. Without these light, medium and heavy solution systems, ground would be churned up and environments destroyed.
