Building work on the Green Point stadium construction site has been given a further boost, after a full Council session on Thursday agreed to allow the 2010 project team to apply for additional building authorisation for work to proceed on the project.

Because construction work is five weeks ahead of schedule, and the final building plans have not yet been approved, the 2010 project team can now apply for the provisional building authorisation in order to ensure that the project remains legally compliant.

The comment period for the revised building plans ends on June 7, and the final building plans are expected to be approved by the end of June.

The excavation work on the stadium site until the end of May was about 90 percent complete and legally compliant under a provisional building plan, but further work – including up to and including the level two podium slab, which houses parking bays, stadium services and equipment – and construction of under-floor services, concrete surface beds, columns, suspended slabs and beams, lift and stair shafts, retaining walls and the first lift of raking columns, will need further authorisation.

"In order to ensure that we remain within our authorised mandate and in order to avoid wasting time we have gained, we therefore need to extend authorisation to the substructure of the stadium," Mayor Helen Zille said on Wednesday.

Expenditure on the stadium up until May 31 is projected at R479-million, excluding VAT.

“The City is well advanced with its other preparations for 2010, especially with regard to transport,” Zille said.

Cape Town is “leading the way” in the country in terms of its transport strategy which has been formulated with the provincial government of the Western Cape, she said.