Builders successfully started to slide a roof over the main Olympic stadium today in what Athens organisers hoped was a turning point for the image of much-criticised preparations for the Games.
Watched by top International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials on their final inspection of the city, the first of two huge arches that will hold an 18,000 tonne steel and carbon panel roof above the stadium in an Athens suburb began, centimetre by centimetre, to move the 71 metres into position.
Over the next days, the second arch will also be moved into position at the opposite end of the stadium so the latticed blue translucent roof, some of it already attached to the arches, can cover the 55,000 seat arena.
The dome, designed by acclaimed Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, will spread across the stadium like a giant spider's web lighting up the night in what many architects regard as an engineering challenge bordering on the impossible because of the weights involved.
The roof slide started 10 days before a May 20th deadline set by the IOC, which had warned if it was not under way by then the project would be cancelled and the Games would go ahead without a roof over the stadium.
"The start [of the first arch] went really well. We've done 10 centimetres without trouble and estimate it will be fully in position in about 12 hours," said a spokesman for the main contractor involved in the project.
As well as protecting the stadium from rain, the roof's carbon panels will give protection against soaring summer heat during the August 13th-29th Games and has crucial broadcasting and surveillance cameras attached to it.