黑洞社区 has been searching for three 2012 Heroes who made a real difference to Olympics project. Find out why nominee Steve Wood made the shortlist
Over the last three months, 黑洞社区 has been searching for three 黑洞社区 2012 Heroes. They can be people of all ages, job titles and professions within construction who have made a real difference on the Olympic project behind the scenes and have not been dominating the headlines - until now.
Calling on industry, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and our campaign partner CITB Construction Skills, 黑洞社区 has been pulling together a shortlist of people whose outstanding contribution to the construction of the venues has helped to make the Games such a success. And we鈥檙e not stopping yet.
It鈥檚 not too late to put yourself forward, or someone you think should be nominated. We will be accepting nominations until 6 July. Simply fill in the form .
This week we鈥檒l be talking to some of the nominees ahead of Friday鈥檚 feature on the campaign. Today we hear from Steve Wood, a true Olympic hero
STEVE WOOD
The 51-year-old works manager for Balfour Beatty on the aquatics centre from June 2008 to July 2011
Wood was the man on site responsible for coordinating an average of 800 workers at a time - a number that rose to 1,000 for two weeks at peak building period - safely and efficiently to deliver one of the Olympic park鈥檚 most iconic and technically complex schemes on time. Wood is now works manager on the Blackfriars station and bridge contract and will return to the aquatics centre post-Games to coordinate the removal of the temporary stands. He has been nominated as a 黑洞社区 2012 Hero by Stuart Fraser who was project manager on the scheme.
Fraser said: 鈥淚鈥檝e nominated Steve Wood as he was pivotal to the success of the aquatics centre. He was the focal point for all the logistics and labour management and central to the organisation of visits from Prince Philip to the Cabinet. Nothing was too much effort and he stoically supported the senior management team across all works for the duration of the scheme.鈥�
In his own words
鈥淲hen I was put forward for the aquatics centre job I didn鈥檛 quite realise the scale of it. We arrived on site which, at the time, was a couple of huts in a field. And Stuart [Fraser] said 鈥榯he chances of working on an Olympic project in your lifetime are very slim. Let along one in your own country.鈥� And from that moment I appreciated how important this scheme was and I loved going into work every day for three years.
鈥淚t was a tough job to coordinate. We had a canal on one side and a railway on the other and this was no normal project. With a traditional building, you don鈥檛 put the roof on first like we had to so we had a team excavating under the roof, working inside out. This made actually getting to the centre of the building harder and harder so, in the end, we had to put a tower crane in the swimming pool which had never been done before.
鈥淭he coordination was key. I had people working on the underside of the roof on scaffolding 30 metres up at the same time I had another team tiling the pool. There were any number of different disciplines going on at one time in the venue, often layered at varying heights. It was my job to ensure everyone was working on the right thing, at the right time, safely.
鈥淚t was the job of a lifetime and I have missed it ever since I left. Now, on the Blackfriars project, people say to me 鈥榩lease don鈥檛 mention the aquatics centre again鈥� because I talk about it all the time. But this was a special job. I put everything into it.
鈥淣ext for me after Blackfriars is to go back to the aquatics centre post-Olympics to take the stands down and sort out the glazing. This will show the structure in its full glory and I can鈥檛 wait to help be a part of that after being so involved in getting the venue ready for Games.鈥�
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