Barge access to the Olympic site for 2012 Games construction

By Tom Derbyshire on March 26, 2008 3:44 PM |

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HUNDREDS of lorry journeys a week should be avoided thanks to a new device giving barges access to the Olympic site for 2012 Games construction.

A fishbelly gate was delivered to Prescott’s Lock, part of the Bow Back Rivers on the edge of the 2012 Games area, on March 17. The gate, which gets its name from its distinctive shape, will
control the flow of water through the lock at the site above Three Mills.

It will create a green gateway for barges entering the Olympic Park as construction work on the 2012 venues is stepped up later this year, helping to stop east London roads being clogged up
by trucks.

The 21-tonne steel gate will be the integral section of the east weir, part of the water control structure.
When completed the 62m by 8m tidal lock, featuring twin water control gates, will provide access for 350-tonne barges, and will include a footbridge, a lock control building and a fish pass.

Work on the lock is funded by British Waterways, the Department for Transport, London Thames Gateway Development Corporation, the Olympic Delivery Authority and Transport for London.

A spokeswoman for British Waterways said: “The work will reinstate an historic structure which previously existed at this location and maintained the water upstream on the Bow Back Rivers at a navigable depth.

“The lock will provide access to the area for freight-carrying barges, helping to take hundreds of lorry journeys a week from local roads and saving thousands of tonnes of CO2 as well as linking the Olympic Park into the Thames Gateway, creating a platform for a new ‘Water City’ in the east of London.”

British Waterways is working with contractor Volker Stevin to deliver the £20million project by August.

simon.hayes@wharf.co.uk