Hitler's impact on the 2012 London olympics

[Herr Schacht]

An interesting read. Enjoy!

Hitler's Buried Bombs Threaten Cleanup of London Olympics Site
2007-09-13 20:30 (New York)
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By Brian Lysaght
Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- One man may delay preparations for
the 2012 London Olympics: Adolf Hitler.
Construction crews are scouring the 500-acre Olympics site
for bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe during World War II that
failed to explode, adding time and expense to a project whose
costs have already more than tripled to 9.3 billion pounds ($19
billion).
Of the 19,000 tons of bombs that pounded London during the
Blitz in 1940-41, about 10 percent didn't explode and remain
buried around the city, according to the Imperial War Museum. A
500-pound bomb packed with explosives led to the evacuation of an
east London neighborhood in May.
``They were aiming for docks, and a lot of them missed, so
they're all over the place,'' said Richard Pawlyn, managing
director of Landmark Information Group, which developed a bomb
site database using maps and government records.
Finding the devices has become more urgent amid London's
biggest construction boom in at least 12 years. Cranes dot the
landscape across the East End boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets
and Newham as builders prepare for Olympics-related work. The
land is being cleared of vacant factories and warehouses that
served London's now-defunct Thames River docks.
London has 5,057 possible unexploded bomb sites, according
to Exeter, England-based Landmark. Most are in the east end,
where shipbuilding and military supply facilities were based. A
sugar factory owned by Tate & Lyle Plc switched to making
airplane parts to help with the war effort, according to the
Docklands Museum.

Industrial Wasteland

While it's rare to find unexploded bombs, grenades and
mortars are more common, said Mike Sainsbury, managing director
of Zetica. About 8,500 smaller explosives have been found in the
U.K. in the past three years, he said. Bombs left undisturbed
tend to deteriorate and become inert over time.
The Olympic Development Authority, which is in charge of
construction, has turned up one grenade so far. The authority is
taking the risk of unexploded bombs ``very seriously'' and has
plans in place to deal with them, said Simon Wright, the ODA's
director for infrastructure.
Bomb searchers such as Zetica, a Long Hanborough, England-
based company and consultant to the authority, use
electromagnetic equipment to scan for buried metal that may be
ordnance. They also sink probes into the ground to search for
deeply buried devices.
``Unexploded ordnance are common on building sites in
London,'' said David Higgins, the authority's chief executive
officer. ``Modern building techniques can cope with that.''

Evacuation

Dozens of families in Bethnal Green were evacuated for two
days in May after a World War II bomb was found on a construction
site. An army bomb squad built a wall around the device before
disarming it. The incident occurred about two miles from the
future Olympic Park, which will include the main stadium, pool
and athletes' housing.
The site is currently an industrial ``wasteland'' surrounded
by some of the poorest neighborhoods in Britain, a House of
Commons committee report said in January.
The authority aims to have the land cleared and prepared for
construction by next summer. In July, workers began cleaning 1.4
million tons of soil contaminated with arsenic, diesel fuel and
ammonia.
Three-quarters of the area has been tested for contaminants,
with 2,000 bore holes sunk to collect samples, Higgins said at a
City Hall news conference on July 28. Besides the grenade,
workers found the remains of a wartime anti-aircraft position and
a helmet, he said.

`Challenging Cleanup'

The project is ``one of the U.K.'s most challenging cleanup
jobs,'' said Higgins, who was CEO of Australia's Lend Lease Corp.
when the company developed the Sydney Olympic Village in 2000.
Behind the 10-foot walls workers have erected around the
London site, thigh-high weeds bend in the breeze. Near Pudding
Mill Lane, just south of the planned Olympic stadium, a faded
``Back the Bid'' poster hangs on an abandoned brick and
corrugated iron building. The slogan dates from the city's 2005
campaign to be named host city.
In June 2006, construction workers found a bomb near City
Airport, shutting the east London airfield for several hours. The
device was destroyed with a controlled explosion.
Police closed Marsh Wall Road, half a mile from the Canary
Wharf office complex, on July 28 after construction workers found
a suspected German V1 missile, known as a ``doodlebug.'' Police
said the device didn't contain explosives.
Four new buildings are under construction at Canary Wharf, a
97-acre office complex in the East End that has attracted tenants
such as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Morgan Stanley and
Citigroup Inc.
Construction in the Silvertown Quays area, a 59-acre site
that includes the Royal Docks, is likely to uncover a cluster of
WWII bombs, according to the Thames Gateway Forum, which is
supporting the development. Silvertown is three miles from the
Olympic Park.
Workers will probably make similar finds on the Olympic
site, said Zetica's Sainsbury.
``There are known abandoned bombs there,'' he said. ``Given
the size and nature of the site, it's likely there are unknown
bombs as well. It's not going to be a small job.''

--With reporting by Rebecca McLaughlin-Duane in London. Editors:
Harris (dde/wsm/acp/jws)

[Antoni Chmielowski]

Good find !