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The first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 consisted of nine sporting events: athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, swimming, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling. 2012 saw Vantage Event and Media Structures complete their very own Olympic feat of scaffolding services across nine Olympics venues, achieving a personal best in all disciplines.
On winning a major sub-contract tender for London 2012 in the face of some stiff competition, Vantage provided a vast range of scaffolding structures for sporting events at The Royal Artillery Barracks, Greenwich Park, the Olympic Village in Stratford, Weymouth, Portland, Hyde Park, Wembley Arena, Hadleigh Farm and Eton Dorney.
Forty scaffolders and five carpenters were deployed across the country and worked seven days a week from March 2012, completing work on time and within budget a week before the opening ceremony in July. Our scaffolding teams for such a stratospheric project were selected carefully with utter flexibility and excellence in mind.
Across the country we constructed scaffolding ramps for disabled access, scaffold staircases for marquees and temporary buildings, over 25,000 metres squared of marquee sub-structures to enable erections on uneven ground, temporary fire exit staircases for multi-storey marquees, bespoke scaffold platforms for athlete rest areas and hundreds of metres of handrails for site operative edge protection. Further to this, our team of carpenters laid anti-slip membranes on all decking for the safety of workers, athletes and spectators. Needless to say, our Olympic and Paralympic performance has since become our flagship project for showcasing our diverse event products and services.
Like all Olympic quests, ours wasn’t without some golden moments: one such scenario was the discovery of a badgers’ set bang in the middle of a plot destined for a scaffolding sub-structure. Contrary to popular belief, scaffolders are big softies at heart, and this wildlife conundrum caused almost two days of delays and a slight relocation of the structure in the end. Meeting Freddie Flintoff was another notable moment on our Olympic journey, but the real reward for us was the privilege of playing an integral part in what has been called the greatest show on earth. There is no better accolade.
On the back of our London 2012 success we hope to deliver our bespoke services to similar sporting events in the future. The opportunity to reprocess approximately 80% of the wood purchased for the Olympic contract ensures that our services for similar events in the future will be environmentally sustainable and economically attractive, given that financial savings on these purchases will be passed onto the client.
Via: Press Release
