ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV

Three contractors have been shortlisted to build the aquatics centre for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The Olympics Delivery Authority (ODA) announced today that Balfour Beatty, Eiffel and Hochtief have met the pre qualification criteria and have been selected to take part in the next stage of the competition.

The three will now enter a competitive dialogue process and the ODA said it would appoint a contractor by the end of the year.

Of the three shortlisted companies, only one, Balfour Beatty, is from the UK. Hochtief is German and Eiffel, part of the Effage Group, is French. Last month, ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV revealed that ODA had telephoned several UK contractors to try to persuade them to bid for the 2012 aquatics centre.

The Zaha Hadid designed aquatics centre will be the first of the major venues to be built. In November 2006, the architect revealed a dramatically scaled back revised concept design for the centre, following budget cuts.

Meanwhile, Balfour Beatty also gained a place on the shortlist for the Olympics Games media centre, revealed yesterday.

Four development teams, which each include a contractor, developer and architect have been selected.

The shortlisted candidates include:

• Babcock & Brown with Balfour Beatty and BDP Architects
• Bouyges with Development Securities and Hopkins Architects
• Carillion with Igloo and Allies & Morrison Architects
• Rosemound with Norwest Holst and Hadfield Cawkwell Davidson Architects

ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV reported last month that the ODA had found it difficult to find teams willing to bid for the media centre, as the winner was expected to secure future uses for the 1.3 million sq ft site. Many developers had raised doubts about the commercial viability of this requirement.

It is now expected that a university will take over the development once the Games are over