take the gold = win first place The winner takes the gold. Think about it.

Heh, this sounds like a newspaper headline. London is the host of the 2012 Summer Olympics. When a city has the Olympics it tends to spend a lot of money and time on construction to be able to host it. "takes the gold" is a term used in the Olympics meaning to basically to win first place (The first place winner is awarded a gold metal) so in this sentence its a bit of a pun. So it could be saying that London in preparing for the Olympics, is using sensible construction that is doing very good and something to be proud of.