Buying for the biggest temporary build

LOCOG has a huge shopping list for the world’s biggest ever temporary overlay project. Host City discovers what they are looking for

Right from the bid stage, London 2012 took the advice of the IOC, which was to only plan permanent structures that would genuinely be needed in legacy. James Bulley, head of venues and operations at LOCOG, tells Host City: “Compared to what you’ve seen in previous Games, you’re going to find it rationalised to a much more focused, functional and operationally appropriate level of requirements to meet the event.” For this reason, the event will be the biggest temporary construction project the Olympics, if not the world, has ever seen. Approximately 200,000 temporary seats, 50km of fences and 100,000 sq m of tents will be needed.

Tesselaar and Dong launched Tescon Event Solutions at the
International Capital Conference in London, September 2009

“Because of the amount of overlay required, we’ve already started procurement activity,” says Bulley. “The tender for furniture, fixtures and equipment is now closed. The other big chunk is commodities: fixed seating for the spectators; tents; fences; portable cabins and so on; and we go to procurement on that next year.

“We’ve put out an expression of interest requesting information from the industry so we know what’s available in terms of market supply for each of those commodity lines. We’ve gone out to the whole industry, in the UK and internationally. We had about 60 suppliers respond to us, from very large to medium-sized suppliers.”

Seeking new sustainable approaches
“The clear message we are giving suppliers is that we want to see innovative approaches to these products, which are sustainable and green in their essence,” says Bulley. “Already we are starting to see some of the responses that are coming back from suppliers, such as different types of materials for tented type structures.”

Any materials and products will need to be reusable. “From the point of view of landfill, we want the event to have as minimal an impact as possible. We won’t be looking to own any assets after the Games – we won’t be doing this again, at least not in my lifetime!”

The vast majority of overlay will be hired from existing stock. “We recognise that the market for tents and seats and so on has an existing supply of stock with these types of materials in. If they have already been produced they are already in the cycle and you might as well use them.”

Knowledge transfer, commodity reuse
In mid-2009, LOCOG appointed Populous to all of the overlay design, with Atkins providing engineering input. Populous’ senior principal John Barrow told Host City in October: “In the same way that we’ve learned from Sydney – where we designed the masterplan, the main stadium and part of the overlay – we’re using that experience to help us in London; and we’re using the London experience to help us in Sochi.

“Each experience builds on the last one. That’s why there’s a huge amount of innovation taking place, not only in the buildings but also in the way we’re approaching the whole process.”

The knowledge gained from this mammoth overlay project will form an important part of the event’s legacy. Bulley says: “This will be part of the transfer of knowledge when we talk our new colleagues in Rio. We’ve already been in discussions with Sochi about how we should go about approaching the overlay designs and how they inform the new build.”

But it’s not just expertise that is useful once a major event is over. Barrow says: “It would be nice to think that our overlay would be transferable to the next Games.”

LOCOG is looking at a number of opportunities to reuse commodities from previous Games and events. Bulley says: “The Glasgow Commonwealth Games is two years after our event finishes, so there is an opportunity to reuse some of the equipment that we have had to produce. We have had discussions with Vancouver about potentially using some of the commodities they’ve manufactured.

“Beijing is one of the core opportunities in terms of commodity suppliers for us. They’ve got a catalogue of everything from trackway and gantries to seats and tents and so on that could be potentially available.”

A torch from Beijing
Where London has demand, Beijing has supply. Tescon Event Solutions is a newly formed company that is positioning itself to transfer overlay from Beijing to the European market, starting by targeting London 2012. The company is the brainchild of Koos Tesselaar, former ceo of overlay leader, De Boer, and Tony Dong, general manager of Beijing Urban Construction Group (BUCG) Modern Construction Technology Company. “In late 2004, we teamed up with BUCG and were heavily involved in the 2008 Olympics,” Tesselaar says. “The Chinese government decided only to invest in the best equipment in the world, resulting in the best Games ever. We have now joined forces to bring experience and equipment to the European marketplace, starting in London.”

BUCG delivered more than 60 per cent of Beijing Olympics projects. Dong says: “Koos transferred knowledge, teaching BOCOG how to adopt this new temporary overlay solution to save costs and to finish everything on time. We covered 48 venues and did a wonderful job using temporary overlay – fencing, seating, floorboards, scoreboards, security and ticketing solutions.”

After the Beijing Olympics, BUCG accumulated numerous seats, fences, flagpoles and even temporary flooring equipment. Dong says: “Because of the knowledge we transferred from De Boer, quality is of the highest standard. If we stick to environmentally friendly principles – to reduce, recycle and reuse – we need to make best use of these things. This is the great Olympic legacy we can share with London.”

For London 2012, Tescon Event Solutions is not only targeting LOCOG but also sponsors, hotels and restaurants. Tesselaar says: “Due to our link into this specialist market, we are preparing collaborations with other suppliers so that we offer the full range of required equipment, with suppliers from Europe and from China. We are preparing a website with full information about all the available materials, which we will first release to LOCOG – they will have first choice.”

Dong says London can set new standards for Olympic infrastructure. “Beijing wanted its Olympics to be the best – but under these financial circumstances, London 2012 should be the most economically and environmentally efficient Olympics. So, for the London Olympics, we offer a good combination of knowledge from Koos and experience from the most recent host city. We can provide good quality, good price materials and Chinese service.”

According to Tesselaar, temporary overlay is a form of engineering that is “all about location and discipline – getting it at the right place at the right time and getting it away at the right time.” Dong says: “We are known as the ‘Logistics Army’. During the Sars crisis, we built an entire hospital within one week.”