As one of the UK’s leading and long-standing construction companies, Henry Boot Construction was awarded the contract by Sheffield City Council to develop the OLP’s 3G community pitch as well as the hard and soft landscaping of the 35-acre site.
 
The 3G community pitch is expected to be complete early next year ready for students from the UTC Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park campus and the Oasis Academy Sheffield to use, and it will be available for public use from May 2017.
 
The public realm and infrastructure, funded by Sheffield City Region Investment Fund (SCRIF) and designed by Sheffield’s Ares Landscape Architects Ltd, will create a large urban park for leisure and exercise, with walking, running and cycling tracks throughout. Local companies Turner and Townsend and Arup complete the reminder of the design and project management team, with Sheffield City Council responsible for administering the Grant and taking overall responsibility for delivering this important phase of the OLP development.
 
Open to the public from May next year, it will enhance urban ecology, with an edible garden, habitats to increase flora and fauna and a number of vantage points for looking over the city centre.
 
A flexible car park space next to the Park Community Arena will also be used for a range of community health and sports outdoor events.
 
Tony Shaw, Operations Director at Henry Boot Construction Limited said “We are delighted to be involved in such a landmark scheme for Sheffield. It is great to see the project get underway and over the coming months the Olympic Legacy Park will really start to take shape.”
 
It follows the completion and opening of the UTC Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park campus – a superb facility for 600 students, aged 14 to 19, specialising in healthcare and sports sciences, and computing.
 
The Rt Hon Richard Caborn, project lead for the OLP, said: “It is so exciting to see the site really taking shape. The Oasis Academy Don Valley opened last September and has seen its first year of students through the doors. Building work was completed on the UTC Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park campus this September and it opened to its first students. And the site’s landscaping and 3G community pitch are the next stages to get going.
 
“The landscaping will tie the sites various elements together and really bring it to life – creating extensive green space for both people and nature.
 
“The pitch is being specially created to meet the needs of a variety of users, from schools and local clubs to professional sporting teams.
 
The Olympic Legacy Park is the biggest London 2012 legacy project of its kind in Europe. It’s a joint venture between Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Sheffield City Council.
 
For more information, visit www.olympiclegacypark.co.uk, follow @OLPSheffield on Twitter, like our Olympic Legacy Park page on Facebook or search for Legacy Park Ltd on Linkedin.

Pictured (L-R) Henry Boot Director, Tony Shaw, Olympic Legacy Park Project Lead, Richard Caborn, and Olympic Legacy Park Project Director, David Hobson.