First league game in 54,000-seat London Stadium will be next weekend

Balfour Beatty has completed the transformation of the London Olympic stadium into West Ham United FC鈥檚 new home.

The 54,000-seat multi-sport venue - which will be rented by West Ham but can also host athletics and concerts - already hosted the club鈥檚 first game at the ground, a 3-0 Europa League qualifying win over Slovenia鈥檚 NK Domzale.

Renamed the London Stadium, it will host West Ham鈥檚 first home Premier League game against Bournemouth in the second round of fixtures next weekend.

Balfour Beatty began works in January 2014, on what was then a 拢154m contract, before asking for 拢36m of additional money later that year as the scope of works increased.

At an ultimate cost of 拢700m - including the 拢428m original cost of Sir Robert McAlpine building the stadium for the 2012 Olympics - the project has proved controversial, particularly as West Ham will pay the public sector just 拢2.5m rent per year for its use.

Balfour Beatty said sustainable measures used during its transformation included the reuse of over 6,000m of cable, 3,800 lights and 1,000 mechanical and electrical components as well as the use of 19,000 tonnes of recycled demolition material.

Works included the installation of the world鈥檚 heaviest anti-gravity roof, which is twice the size of the original, and the iconic lighting towers have been reintegrated within the stadium.

At its peak, the project employed over 1700 people on site, culminating in 3.4 million man hours worked.

Stephen Tarr, managing director of Balfour Beatty鈥檚 major projects business said, 鈥淔rom the very beginning we were focused on continuing the legacy of this historic venue, transforming it from its original use of a single-purpose venue to a multi-functional world class venue providing numerous opportunities and uses for generations to come.

鈥淲e have utilised some of the most complex engineering techniques on this project, capitalising on our in-house capabilities and expertise to ensure the project was delivered safely to a high specification whilst boosting the local economy through employment opportunities; it鈥檚 a project we are all immensely proud of鈥.

London Stadium