The London 2012 Olympic budget is keeping close to its targets thanks in part to lower than expected levels of contamination on the Olympic Park, according to the annual report published by the Department for Culture Media and Sport.
The report says that while forecast costs on some venues have risen by £196m, this is offset by forecast savings of £193m.
A big element of that is a £47m reduction in the site preparation budget from November 2007's estimated £1,979m.
"Where there are cost pressures in some areas, such as on venues, we are working to offset these by making savings in other areas, such as the clean up of the site and infrastructure projects," said Olympic Delivery Authority chairman John Armitt.
The report says that, by December, 78% of site-wide preparation works were complete and 93% of on-site buildings were demolished, with ODA exceeding its 90% building material recycling target.
It says 50,000t of soil have been bioremediated, enabling 80% of contaminated soil to be treated on site.
However, it does not mention that the "zero waste to landfill" commitment made in the original Olympic bid and sustainability objectives was not met, with at least 16,000t of filter cake from soil washing sent to landfill (BB, July 2008).
So far, it says, around 80% of invasive plants including Japanese knotweed and giant hogweed have been removed from the Olympic Park.
