LONDON (AP) — Organizers of the 2012 London Olympics will spend $31.4 million of reserve funds to help secure games venues from terrorist attacks, the British government said Monday.
The need to modify Olympic Park facilities "to make them more secure and resilient to attacks" was the only dip into contingency funds in the past three months.
In its latest quarterly report, the government said other savings meant the extra security spending would not affect the anticipated final cost of the Olympics, which was unchanged at $11.9 billion.
Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said the project was on time and on budget, with events planned next week to mark the three-year countdown to the opening ceremony.
"The overall funding package for the games remains the same and the anticipated final cost of the Olympic Delivery Authority budget is the same at it was at the end of March," Jowell said in a statement.
A total of $2.098 billion in contingency funds remains unallocated, even after more than 1.15 million pounds of the fund has been spent in offsetting the effects of the global financial crisis.
Jowell said more than 4,000 workers were now on the Olympic Park site involved in building venues and infrastructure such as roads and bridges.
"The project continues to provide jobs and millions of pounds worth of business opportunities to companies around the UK in a challenging time," she said.
ODA chairman John Armitt said it had hit all its targets in the past year.
"Though we are making strong progress we are not complacent," Armitt said. "The year ahead is a challenging one as activity on site reaches its peak."
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