Date set for London 2012 Olympic stadium building work

Building work on London's Olympic stadium for the 2012 Games will begin in a fortnight.

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Olympic stadium work starts early

The £496m stadium in east London will start to take shape on May 22, according to the BBC.

On the up: construction of the London 2012 Olympic stadium will begin on May 22

In March, the Olympic Delivery Authority said construction of the 80,000-seater venue would begin this month, rather than August as first anticipated.

The stadium will be the focal point of the Olympic Park which is being built on former industrial land and work on clearing the site, requiring the removal of thousands of tons of contaminated soil, began last July.

The 2.5-square-km park will also house the Aquatics Centre, the Velodrome, the hockey, fencing, basketball and handball arenas and the international media centre.

After the Games the stadium will be scaled back to 25,000 seats. It will retain a permanent athletics track, although no long-term tenant has yet been found.