(ATR) The new National Stadium being built for the Beijing Olympics now stands on its own. On Sunday the last of 78 support structures were removed from the steel "bird's nest" lattice.
The operation marked the completion of a key phase of
construction for the 2008 Games. The giant jacks had helped to bear a load of 11,200 tons of steel in the upper sections of arena.
"New technologies, involving design, materials, manufacturing, installation, monitoring and management areas were used in the process," lead engineer Hou Zhaoxing said.
The steel skeleton of the stadium spans 340 meters and reaches a maximum height of 68 meters, Hou said.
Despite the public attention on the unique outer structure, architects have focused on providing the best possible facilities for athletes and spectators, said Li Xinggang, deputy chief architect of the China Architecture Design and Research Group.
"Contrary to what many imagine, we put the design of the project's inner part first, focusing on spectators' stands, the core part of a sport facility," Li said.
The interior facades of the classical-style stands will reflect "ancient Roman or Greek" features, he said.
The 91,000-seat stadium has a designed floor space of 258,000 square meters. It will be used for the opening and closing ceremonies, track and field events, and football finals.
Construction began in December 2003 and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2007.
Welding of the main steel structure, which weighs a total of 42,000 tons, was completed on August 31, BOCOG said earlier.
A pictorial review of the stadium construction is available at the BOCOG website, www.beijing2008.com.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao also helped to promote the 2008 games Saturday. State media showed him jogging in the streets of Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, wearing an official Beijing 2008 tracksuit.
Reported by Bill Smith in Beijing.
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