Geda ensures easy access to Olympic stands

With the 2012 Olympics underway - disabled visitors are assured easy access to some of the specially built stands via 22 Geda lifts. These have been rented to LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) by some of Geda's UK scaffolding business partners.

A total of £7.3 billion (€8.3 billion) has been spent by the organisers on the construction of the new competition venues alone. The games have been designed with a focus on sustainability and while many sports venues will outlast the event and continue to be used, others will be dismantled after the games.

Extra spectator stands also had to be provided at the newly built sports venues such as the Velodrome, the Hockey Arena and the Lee Valley White Water Centre. LOCOG decided to deploy several lift solutions from the company Geda-Dechentreiter GmbH primarily to enable wheelchair visitors access the stands and to transport them up and down.

The base for the spectator stands is a special scaffolding construction supplied by Layher. Since the scaffolding only has limited load-bearing capacity, lifts had to be installed which meet these requirements.

Geda overcame this limitation in some venues with its two mast system and with the low weight of the lifts installed so only low anchorage forces effect the scaffolding. Geda was also able to deliver the lifts just three months before the start of the games as well as provide support for the installation and on-site operation.

The Geda lifts can be found at the Hockey Stadium, the BMX Arena, Eton Dorney Rowing Lake (rowing, canoeing, kayaking), Greenwich Park (Equestrian) and the Lee Valley White Water Canoeing Centre (canoe and kayak slalom) amongst others.

Nine Geda 1500 Z/ZP Transport Platforms are being used, seven 500 Z/ZP Transport Platforms and six Multilift P18 S lifts.

To ensure the safe passage from the hoists to the respective platforms, Geda landing level safety gates have been installed at all entry and exit points, ensuring that the gap at the transfer point between hoist and platform is a maximum of only 20mm.

All Geda hoists are equipped with the usual safety equipment such as limit switches, speed-dependent safety gear, safety stop and overload protection.