16 Feb 2011

Olympics-2012 aquatics construction deadline tight

3:25 pm on 16 February 2011

Britain's spending watchdog says construction of all the main London 2012 Olympic venues is on track, but the deadlines for the aquatics centre and part of the athletes' village are becoming tight.

Five of the 24 main infrastructure and venue projects have been finished and the rest are on or ahead of schedule.

But construction at the aquatics centre has slipped by two months to June this year because of complications with its wave-shaped roof and two of the 11 residential blocks in the athletes' village have taken 15 weeks longer than planned.

The National Audit Office says the final cost of the Games is inherently uncertain and the remaining contingency needs to be carefully managed to stay within the $NZ20 billion budget.