Tokyo 2020 Olympic Aquatics Center Construction On Schedule

There are fewer than 750 days until the opening ceremony of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games and Tokyo organizers say all is going according to plan construction-wise. The newly constructed venues, including the Olympic Aquatics Center, are 20-40% complete and on schedule, organizers said after a media tour this week.

Media toured the Canoe Slalom Course, Sea Forest Waterway, Ariake Arena, Olympic Aquatics Center, all in Koto Ward, and the Olympic Village in Chuo Ward. All those venues as well as the Seaside Park Hockey Stadium (Ota Ward), Dream Island Archery Field (Koto Ward), Ariake Tennis Park (Koto Ward) and Musashino Forest Sport Plaza (Chofu City), all of which are new venues.

As for the Olympic Aquatic Center, its 6,000-ton roof is currently under construction just a few meters above the ground at this point, before it will be raised up 15m in a unique method called ‘lift-up.’

In an article appearing in The Japan Times, Taishu Tone, a PR representative for the building said, “By using this method, the construction term can be shortened because we can develop the building and the roof at the same time.

“By making the roof near the ground, we can cut the cost to move up the materials. After the roof is lifted up midway, we can work under the roof when it rains.”

Also open to the media was the Olympic Village, a site with 21 flat-type buildings providing 18,000 beds for the Summer Olympics. There will also be a main dining area for athletes, as well as a Village Plaza containing a shopping center.

Per Olympic Village PR representative Yukihiro Nakata, “The process is 40 percent completed. The accommodation towers will be completed by December 2019.”