News releases

Olympic legacy goes to Rio with cauldron petals - 08 November 2012

As the host country of the next Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016, the Rio de Janeiro Organising Committee will receive a London 2012 copper petal  taken from the Olympic flame cauldron later this month.  LOCOG representatives are travelling to Brazil to share the London 2012 lessons learnt, including Atkins' design and engineering technical knowledge gained over the last seven years.

By the end of the year, each National Olympic and Paralympic Committee will receive the copper petal which accompanied their teams at the opening ceremonies and formed part of the Olympic and Paralympic cauldrons at the London 2012 Games as a memento of their sporting achievements. 

As the official provider of engineering design services for the London 2012 Games, Atkins' engineering design solutions will be passed on to the host organiser via a series of reports it authored on a variety of topics as part of the ODA's London 2012 Learning Legacy programme; papers from the UK-GBC's London 2012 Lessons Learned programme which Atkins partnered; and Atkins' Temporary Materials Handbook which gives advices on materials substitutions and end of life destinations.

Mike McNicholas, Atkins' London 2012 project director, said: "Thisproject has been transformational for Atkins and we worked with partners to find new solutions to some unique challenges. The London 2012 infrastructure is widely regarded as a resounding success. It was delivered on time and on budget and achieved unprecedented levels of sustainability, setting a new benchmark for major infrastructure projects. We are proud to be playing our part in sharing our knowledge with the next hosts of the Olympic and Paralympic Games."

The distribution of the copper petals is also a special moment for Atkins. Atkins' utilities engineer Daniel Hatton was the scheme designer for the gas supply up to the cauldron. As the technical co-ordination manager, Atkins worked with the cauldron's designers and manufacturers to ensure the gas supply to the 204 floral petal designs for the Olympic nations and 164 petals for the Paralympic nations met safety standards and passed all building control and security regulations. This was made more complex because of the number of parties involved and the fact that a relatively high pressure supply was needed in order to get the effect required.

Ends

For more information:

Jane Sheils
Group PR manager

+44 1372 752350 / +44 7803 259 777
jane.sheils@atkinsglobal.com

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Notes to editors:

Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com) is one of the world's leading engineering and design consultancies*, employing some 17,420 people across the UK, North America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe. It has the breadth and depth of expertise to plan, design and enable some of the world's most technically challenging and time critical infrastructure projects.

*It is the largest engineering consultancy in the UK (New Civil Engineer Consultants File 2012) and the 13th largest global design firm (Engineering News-Record 2011).

Recent projects include:

  • Major infrastructure works, such as the design and programme management of the civil works for the Dubai Metro red and green lines in the UAE;
  • Key rail projects - providing architectural and engineering design services on Crossrail, Europe's biggest civil engineering project in London, UK, and designing stations, tunnelling and track systems for Gautrain, South Africa's first high speed line;
  • Renewable energy schemes - transformer platform design for the Thanet offshore wind park in the North Sea;
  • High profile transport planning and urban design - our innovative scheme to deliver a diagonal crossing at Oxford Circus in London, UK, has helped tackle the problem of pedestrian crowding;
  • Multidisciplinary building design - Northwood Primary School in Darlington, UK, is an exemplar project which raises standards for environmental design and community engagement.
  • Multi-year architecture-engineering construction management services for the US National Park Service, including projects such as rehabilitation of the Furnace Creek Visitor Center and Administrative Complex at California's Death Valley to meet the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certification standards;
  • Water and environmental projects - critical programme management of storm protection works in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Southern Louisiana in North America, providing expertise in coastal restoration, engineering, environmental and GIS support to rebuild defenses and protect habitats;

Atkins was named among The Sunday Times 25 Best Big Companies to Work For 2011, won Consultancy of the Year in the CIBSE Low Carbon Performance Awards 2010, received the first ever certification of the Carbon Trust Standard awarded to an engineering consultancy in the construction sector, and was included in The Times Top 50 Employers for Women 2011 and The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2010. Atkins was also construction and civil engineering sector winner for the fifth consecutive year in the Target National Graduate Recruitment Awards 2010 and was awarded a RoSPA Gold Award 2011 for excellence in control of health and safety in the workplace.

Atkins is the official engineering design services provider for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

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