| Lee Valley White Water Centre | |
|---|---|
| Locale | Hertfordshire, England UK |
| Managing agent | Lee Valley Regional Park Authority |
| Website | Go Whitewater |
| Main shape | Two Loops |
| Length | Olympic: 300 metres (984 ft)
Training: 160 metres (525 ft) |
| Drop | Olympic: 5.5 metres (18 ft)
Training: 1.6 metres (5 ft) |
| Slope | Olympic: 1.8% (97 ft/mi)
Training: 1.0% (53 ft/mi) |
| Water source | Groundwater |
| Pumped | Olympic: 5 pumps
Training: 3 pumps |
| Flowrate | Olympic: 13 m3/s (460 cu ft/s)
Training: 10.5 m3/s (370 cu ft/s) |
| Practice pool | Yes |
| Lighting | yes |
| Canoe lift | yes |
| Opening date | 9 December 2010 |
Lee Valley White Water Centre (previously known as Broxbourne White Water Canoe Centre) will host the canoe slalom events of the 2012 Summer Olympics. On 9 December 2010, Anne, Princess Royal officially opened the venue. The £31 million project was finished on schedule and was the first newly-constructed Olympic venue to be completed. [1]
Lee Valley White Water Centre has now been selected to host the 2015 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships.
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The venue is located between the towns of Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire and Waltham Abbey in Essex. The site is just outside the northern boundary of Greater London and 9 miles (14 km) north of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, east London. The Centre is in the heart of River Lee Country Park which is part of the 10,000-acre (40 km2), 26-mile (42 km) long Lee Valley Park.[2] The Centre opened in late 2010 offering canoeing and rafting activities to the public ahead of the London 2012 Summer Olympics.
The venue has a purpose built slalom course for the Olympic white water canoe events (flatwater canoeing and kayaking events will take place at Dorney Lake, Buckinghamshire, west of London). The main competition channel is an international and Olympic standard 300 metre canoe and kayak slalom course. It and the shorter warm-up course empty into the warm up and cool down lake. The white water is created by a system of pumps which lift water into the two start pools. All of the water contained in the system is slightly chlorinated in order to retain water quality. [3] During the Games, temporary seating will be installed around the venue for 12,000 spectators.
The 300 metre competition course has a drop of 5.5 metres[4] (18 ft), for an average slope of 1.8% (18 m/km or 95 ft/mile) and a pump-powered streamflow of 13 cubic metres per second (460 cubic feet per second).[5] The intermediate/warm-up course is 160 metres long with a drop of 1.6 metres and flow of 10.5 cubic metres per second.[4] A 10,000 square metre lake, filled with groundwater, supplies the water for the pumps.[6]
The course is sited within a new landscaped parkland setting, including path and bridge networks to enable spectators to have access and view the events. A new facility building houses reception, café, changing rooms, shop, offices, spectator viewing, equipment storage and water pump and filtration facilities.[3]
Lee Valley White Water Centre will be the only brand new London 2012 venue available for public use before the Games. The Centre will provide canoeing and rafting activities for users of all abilities who will be able to take advantage of the Olympic and intermediate course.[7] Before the London 2012 Games the venue will be owned, funded and managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, it will join the other London 2012 venues – the Velopark, Hockey Centre and tennis centre at Eton Manor – that the Park Authority will also own, fund and manage in legacy.
The venue will open again to the public after the Games. Spectator seating will be removed and the venue will return to providing a leisure attraction for canoeing and white water rafting and a competition venue for elite events, to be managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority.[3][7][8] In April 2011 it was confirmed that the centre would host the 2015 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships.[9]
The main facility building is designed by FaulknerBrowns Architects.[10] The canoe course is located within a wider parkland setting designed by U.S.-based landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates.[11][12] Whitewater course specialists Whitewater Parks International, working with civil and structural engineers Cundall, are the designers of the whitewater courses.[13] Indigo Planning were the planning consultants and managed the preparation of the Environmental Statement.
The site is located just off the A121 road, with easy access from the A10 road, and junctions 25 and 26 of the M25 motorway.
Rail access to the site is via Cheshunt and Waltham Cross railway stations on the West Anglia Main Line, with frequent services from Stratford, near the main Olympic site, and Liverpool Street. Theobalds Grove railway station, on the Lea Valley Lines, is nearby.
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