Sydney gets ready for the big Olympic fortnight

By ANNE GIBSON property editor

The buildings at Homebush in Sydney are ready, the airport has been upgraded and next month the Games begin.

One construction company has been working towards the Olympics for the past eight years.

Revamping Sydney Airport and working on the Games' site are just two projects completed by recently merged Bovis Lend Lease.

Working out requirements goes back to 1992, when master planning started on the 760ha Homebush site, which has a varied past. It was used as an abattoir, brickworks, stock-holding yards and toxic waste dump.

When Lend Lease - now called Bovis Lend Lease - was excavating the Olympic pool, workmen unearthed an entire double-decker bus, says Rae Miller, marketing and communications manager for Bovis in Sydney.

The company has large projects in New Zealand which are a little less glamorous than the Olympics, building hospitals and wastewater treatment facilities. It is involved in the $400 million revamp of the Manukau plant and oxidation ponds as well as a new $135 million plant for the Lower Hutt City Council.

But across the Tasman the Bovis project managers and builders have been busy on the Olympic Games site and Sydney Airport.

Bovis worked with fellow Australian property giant Mirvac to build the athletes' village on a 90ha site next to Olympic Park. A new suburb projected to cost $A750 million ($890 million) is being built.

Newington, with house lots of between 200 sq m and 333 sq m, will house more than 15,750 athletes and officials during the two weeks of competition.

The athletes' village is a mix of low-rise apartments, terraced houses and units, some of which have already been sold for post-Games occupation.

This job will take 10 years to complete. After the Olympics, 600 dwellings will be built, 50,000 sq m of office park and 6700 sq m of shopping. Newington will eventually have three residential areas, a shopping centre and business park. Apartments are selling for up to $A525,000 and houses to $A540,000.

All permanent houses in Newington - said to be the world's largest solar suburb - have solar-power and energy and water-conservation strategies.

Bovis has been working on the Homebush site for eight years with clients, the New South Wales Government and the organising authorities.

The jobs included the infrastructure planning and development of the overall site. Bovis also managed the Sydney International Athletic Centre, the athletics warm-up track and the Sydney International Aquatic Centre.

Getting people to the Games was just one of the headaches in the logistical planning. Sydney Airport moves 8 million travellers yearly and its upgrade was put on an 18-month fast-track so it would be ready for visitors and athletes.

Bovis managed the development of a redesigned airport, a $A500 million project.

Bovis, owned by Australia's Lend Lease Corporation, earns $A3 billion annually, making it one of the world's top 10 global project management, design and construction companies. The takeover late last year was of the Anglo-American Bovis by Australia's Lend Lease. The new entity operates in 38 countries.

After the Games Bovis won't be sitting on its hands. It has won the management of the $A1.4 billion Parramatta Rail Link project in Sydney, a key element of the New South Wales 10-year transport development programme. It will link Chatswood in Sydney's northern suburbs with Parramatta in the west.

A total of 27km of twin-track will be laid for the link. Of this, 19km is underground, with 12 stations to be built along the way.