Construction sector feasts on building

Rory McGowan, a partner at engineering design consultant Arup, looks from his window at a Beijing skyline studded by the skeletal hulks of skyscrapers under construction – including the $600m-plus (€435m, £294m) China Central Television tower he is helping to build.

“The international architectural roadshow has come to Beijing and the purpose is the Olympics,” Mr McGowan says.

The whirlwind of construction that has enveloped China’s capital in preparation for the games has been a feast for Arup. Along with the CCTV tower and a neighbouring 30-storey hotel and cultural centre, the firm is helping to build the National Stadium, the National Aquatics Centre and an airport terminal. Beijing’s makeover goes far beyond such signature projects, however.

According to Zhang Lixin, the director of building permit administration at Beijing’s planning commission, construction in the city has added 100m square metres of floor space annually in recent years, its highest level in history.

“Beijing is like a big building site,” she says. “The Olympics has been a very big factor is accelerating the pace of development.”

For Ms Zhang, the most important element is the creation of a transport system that will endure long after the sporting cavalcade has departed. Over the next year, Beijing will put into operation three new mass transit lines. Underground lines will connect the new business district and the CCTV building to the Olympic centre, while a light rail line will run to the airport. A new north-south line will even be equipped with a wireless communications system that officials say will allow in-car live broadcasts of Olympic events.

Other infrastructure, such as power and water networks and sewers, are also being upgraded – particularly those that serve Olympic facilities.

With just a year to go, all indications are that the city will be ready. China’s technocratic and authoritarian government has had no problem keeping the vast majority of the Games-related projects on schedule and the International Olympic Committee has expressed full confidence.

There had been some concerns about the tight time­table for the high-technology 28km rail link between the airport and a new downtown transport hub. With an opening date just over a month before the games, the airport line still has little margin for error. But basic construction is complete and all parties involved know the importance of making sure it is in operation in time.

Delays have also hit the crucial National Stadium, an extraordinary tangle of steel struts dubbed the “Bird’s Nest” that will host the opening ceremony on August 8 next year. Officials recently announced that it will be finished only by the end of March 2008, three months later than expected.