(ATR) Beijing Olympic organizers say construction remains on schedule for the Games and has not been affected by the corruption scandal surrounding a former vice mayor.
Dozens of foreign journalists toured the sites of the National Stadium and the aquatics center for the 2008 Games Friday for an update on construction.
"We are very confident that we will finish the project on time," said deputy construction manager Zhang Hengli at the stadium. Nearly 80 percent of the steel structure is now complete.
He said about 2,000 laborers and engineers were working long hours and weekends to ensure the steel-lattice structure for the 91,000-seat "bird's nest" stadium is finished by the end of this year.
Zhang said that former vice mayor and Olympics construction director Liu Zhihua, sacked in May over corruption charges, "has no direct connection with this project".
At the aquatics center, construction manager Wang Wubin said workers will start to put blue membranes onto the distinctive "double bubble" steel framework this month.
"We have a specific and detailed plan for every step," Wang said, adding that test results on the steel structure were "better than expected".
"By the end of October next year, the whole project will be ready for testing," Wang said.
Officials are not concerned by possible difficulties in cleaning the bubbles once they are installed, he said.
"The producer told us it [the material] has a self-cleaning function, and we will clean it regularly," Wang said.
Beijing is building 12 permanent and eight temporary new venues for the Games, which begin August 8, 2008.
Eleven other venues are being refurbished.
Next month will see the first Olympic test events at the Qingdao sailing center and the Fengtai softball pitch in Beijing.
The corruption scandal surrounding Liu Zhihua widened last month with the arrest of the chairman of Capital Group, the largest construction and services company in Beijing.
Capital Group falls under the Beijing municipal government. It is active in municipal infrastructure construction, real estate, finance, industrial technology, commerce and trade, tourism and hotels.
Reported by Bill Smith in Beijing
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