LHC: construction and commissioning status

The installation of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN is now approaching completion. All magnets are installed with the exception of a few inner triplet quadrupoles. The first of the eight machine sectors is cold and power tests are proceeding. Two other sectors are ready for cool down and interconnect work is proceeding at a satisfactory pace in the other five sectors. In view of a number of accumulated delays, the original plan for partial commissioning of the machine and a low energy pilot run at the end of 2007 will now have to be abandoned. Instead, the full commissioning of the machine to top energy in a single step will start once the injector chain becomes available in spring 2008.