The stadium makeover involves construction of a platform made up of 1,200 base panels and supported by 6,000 steel stilts, on top of which the track and infield turf will be laid
Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill has praised the "fantastic" way Hampden Park is being transformed into the Commonwealth Games athletics stadium by building a track and infield on a temporary platform two metres above the normal pitch level.
Ennis-Hill, who will not be competing at the Glasgow Games because she is expecting her first child, joined Scottish 400 metres hurdler Eilidh Child at the stadium as organisers provided a glimpse of the innovative way the venue is being turned from the home of Scottish football into a world-class athletics arena.
The stadium makeover, which Games organisers have labelled the 'Glasgow solution', involves the construction of a platform made up of 1,200 base panels and supported by 6,000 steel stilts, on top of which the track and infield turf will be laid.
Similar technology was used to construct the equestrian arena on a temporary deck in Greenwich Park during the London Olympics but it is the first time an entire running track has been built on stilts.
Raising the height of the pitch level by two metres is necessary to gain the extra length and width needed to accommodate the track, which is due to be in place by the end of next month. The Games open on July 20.
"It looks fantastic," said Ennis-Hill, who is an ambassador for Glasgow 2014. "With the amount of work that's gone into raising the level of the stadium, it looks brilliant already."
During the Games, the stadium will seat 44,000 people before returning to its usual 52,000 capacity when the track is removed and it is handed back to Hampden Park authorities in November.