Sports Infrastructure: Rebuilding Beijing for 2008

The harangue on Delayed implementations and management differences

For the Summer Olympics, Beijing’s bid included a 2 year preparation period till 2003 and construction completed by 2006 to allow for testing. We in India have never been so proactive depending on tall claims for proposal documents not backed by any on ground planning. Olympic partners selected included Macdonalds, Samsung, Coca Cola, GE and Johnson & Johnson. Advertising partners for the CWG 2010 are still not warmed up to the idea of financial investment in a Commonwealth Games project.

“Toh yeh to bid hai” However, thus our definition of last minute includes vilification of the current crop of organisers and research, approvals and construction of “world class infrastructure” in the remaining time. Tender Documents routinely espouse “It’s just a document philosophy” esp outside the Health Care, Outsosurcing and Banking fields  IT has actually been a significant objective in every large deal that I have conducted to use these customer points where things are forced to be casual and long drawn no scores to create transformational gains on the value delivered by just sticking to an agenda and due objectives in action with the related stakeholders..EM Shridhar might agree that is a good way to keep y’self occupied. The CWG Organising Comm CEO obviously thought of differnt ways to get ahead…It happened in Athens, there was a lot of crib in Beijing and it will happen again in Jo’burg and at least the first time in Rio in 2012..

Beijing – Birds’ nest and Sports infrastructure

The National Olympic Stadium, now being used for Taiji and even skiing in the premises outside..was like Rome, not built in a day. The Bubble Building, also an architectural marvel and the Birds’ nest with 42000 tos of Steel in Scaffolding cost Beijing $600 million in 2005 prices for a lasting transformation of the city providing a lasting destination for Sportspersons..

The ciy orgaisers planned a $16 billion spend on the City and Tianjin during the OLympic spurred boom, expecting a 1% surge in GDP from the games. When the games began on 8/8/2008 there were back reports from the visiting media on polluted roads and real estate scams involving unsatisfied residents of Hutongs and otherwise removed for clearing the city infrastructure.

The Bubble facade will consists of irregular honeycombed forms, shaped like bubbles and resembling the structure of foam. Together with the national stadium, the swimming centre got attached too with a metaphorical meaning: in China circle and square symbolize the antagonism between heaven and earth.

Improving the urban foot print

One of the more important projects designed for urban living in that period was a transportation ring around Beijing and sister town Tianjin allowing all locations access to Beijing under 3 hous. This urban transport ring is to be completed by 2011 by surface transport in a radius of 500 kilometres across Chengde, Shijiazhuang and Qinhuangdao. Projects include construction of a third airport terminal, 150 km of new suburban rail and subway track, more than 700 additional kilometers of urban highways, a dozen stadiums, museums, convention centers, trade fair centers and administrative buildings. There’s also been a much higher level of private investment in hotels, shopping malls, office buildings and residential complexes than ever before. And even critics have to admit that Beijing’s urban planners have learned from past mistakes. For example, speed used to have priority over quality, but now officials are making use of state-of-the-art building concepts and technologies. (source: Siemens, China Daily)

The 12 sq km Olympic Park housing the Birds Nest and the Village is now a proud place in the heart of Beijing.