3.6
The cost in billions of pounds to stage the Olympic Games in east London in 2012, according to consultant Arup.

This is substantially different from government estimates, which came in at £5.4bn. While debate raged as to whether Britain should go for the bid, Arup was reportedly working on a new set of figures.

The proposed 80,000-seat development in Stratford would include an Olympic village for 16,000 athletes.

The government appears reluctant to back the bid due to fears over the potential cost and painful memories of the fiascos surrounding the Dome project and the rebuilding of Wembley.

If London does bid it will be up against New York, Paris, Moscow, Istanbul, Budapest, Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo and Abuja (Nigeria).

40
The recession-triggering price of oil, in US dollars per barrel, according to research group Oxford Economic Forecasting. The group believes that if war against Iraq is long and bloody and, as a result, oil prices average $40 per barrel over 2004, the US will slide back into recession.

America is the engine of the world economy, so that spells bad news for UK construction, already feeling global economic gloom. If the US and UK do attack Iraq, the industry had better hope for a short, happy war in which the US military is able to protect Iraq's oil fields from arson (remember the Kuwait oil infernos?) and release the vast Iraqi supply onto the market.

50
The amount in thousands of pounds that a contractor with an average construction site in London will pay due to the congestion charge, which will be introduced on February 17.

The Corporation of London came up with the figure based on the assumption that a project would last 18 months and receive around 15 deliveries a day, with costs for site visits and admin on top of that.

Drivers will have to pay £5 a day to drive within the congestion charging zone which covers the London Boroughs of Southwark, Westminster, Camden, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Islington and Lambeth. Companies with more than 25 vehicles will have to shell out £5.50 a day, plus a £10 annual fee if they want to pay on account rather than daily.

746
The number of applications for HND or degree courses in construction management in 2002, according to a draft report released by the University of Central England. That's a 15% drop from the previous year, and a 61% drop since 1995. The study, Rethinking Construction Education, concluded this would lead to the "inevitable" collapse of the industry. The report also found: - a decline in the standard of applicant. Only 13% had more than 21 GCSE points in 2000 - a decline in women students applying. The figure was down to 8% in 2000 Sir Michael Latham, chair of the CITB, suggested that an advertising campaign was needed along the lines of the CITB's controversial poster campaign targeting the trades.

65bn
The value, in US dollars, of contracts to rebuild Kuwait after Iraq pulled out in 1991. Just think how much will be spent on rebuilding a flattened Iraq. After the first Gulf War, Marvin and Neil Bush, two of the president's sons, were among the contract prospectors, as was James Baker, a former US secretary of state. The US as a whole only landed $16bn worth of contracts, though. Some people got burned in that latter-day Klondike. Blase Cooke is president of Maryland company Harkins Builder. He joined a consortium intent on winning work in Kuwait and found it a waste of time. "You had to work with the Emir's brother and uncle and nephew and things like that," he said.
Source: St Petersburgh Times.

Source

Construction Manager