By Gary Anderson

June 25 - Aquatics Centre InsideReconstruction work is continuing at pace to London's Aquatic Centre, which staged all the swimming and diving events during last years Olympic and Paralympic Games, as the first of 628 panes of glass have been installed to transform the outside of the facility, ahead of it being opened up to the public in spring 2014.


The 15,000 temporary seats installed for London 2012, which were not part of designer Zaha Hadid's original design, have been removed ahead of the installing of the new panes of glass, which is expected to take 70 days to complete, at a rate of 10 panes of glass per working day.

The standard weight of each pane of glass is 250 kilogramme's, with the heaviest piece weighing 377kg and it will take a team of six to install each of the panes, which have been manufactured in Leon, North West Spain.

The Aquatics Centre in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford was completed in 2011 at a cost of £251 million ($382 million/€293 million) and its distinctive wave-like roof is 160 metres long and 80m wide.

The building is 45m high.

"With the first panes of glass expertly installed in the Aquatics Centre, we can start counting down the months to the grand opening of a world class public swimming facility next spring," said Boris Johnson, the London Mayor and chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

"The magnificent shape of the Zaha Hadid design is forming day by day and the permanent legacy this superb building will become is evident."

London 2012 Aquatics Centre having glass put in June 2013Workers will take 70 days to install the new 628 glass panels on the outside of the Aquatics Centre in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

Once work is completed, the centre, which has two 50m swimming pools and a 25m diving pool, will have a capacity of 2,500 with the option of adding a further 1,000 seats for major events.

It will also have cafe and crèche, a dry dive training area and a full programme of aquatics activities from lane swimming and lessons to aqua-aerobics, water polo and synchronised swimming.

"Once complete the Aquatics Centre will be a public swimming pool as well as an elite training facility and competition venue," said Dennis Hone, chief executive of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

"We are on track to deliver a fantastic new destination and a lasting legacy for East London and are looking forward to the full opening of the Park in the spring next year."

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