Athlone Towers to be imploded “as soon as possible”.
Jet Demolition, the appointed firm to demolish the Athlone cooling towers, and Knight Piésold Consulting, which have been appointed to investigate engineering solutions to the structural instability of the two cooling towers, are working closely together with the City to properly cover all aspects of demolishing the towers at the Athlone Power Station as soon as possible.
Two consulting firms recommended that the towers be demolished after reinforced concrete stiffening rings on one of the towers collapsed on 14 February this year. Jet Demolition was appointed last week and has 60 days from the date of their appointment to demolish the towers. The Environmental Team at Knight Piésold has been tasked with addressing the environmental issues associated with the demolition process.
“The high safety risks associated with a project of this nature requires that adequate attention be given to the technical preparation for demolition, therefore we could not implode the towers by the end of May 2010 as we had hoped. The Project Team will, however, work as quickly as possible to ensure a safe and accurate implosion in a controlled manner. The Project Team is obviously concerned about the safety risks during the preparation of the towers for implosion and will therefore have safety specialists involved in this planning. Further to this, the City has an emergency plan in place that will be activated should the need arise,” says Alderman Clive Justus, Mayoral Committee Member for Utility Services.
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