Status of the LHC

Since the approval of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) by the CERN Council in December 1994, considerable progress has been made in the assessment of the beam parameters and the refining of the design of the machine components and experimental areas. Thanks to the strong support from a number of countries outside the Member States, the machine will be constructed in one single stage with first physics in 2005. The first large calls for tenders are being launched. The status of the project and the future plans are presented.