Giant ‘Meccano set’ comes down
87 FEET ABOVE SALFORD, WORKERS ARE CAREFULLY DISMANTLING PYLONS... LIKE A ‘GIANT MECCANO SET’
THEY’VE dominated the skyline in Salford since 1932, powering homes for more than 85 years.
But now a collection of electricity pylons are being taken down under a £3.5m engineering project.
The towering pylons carry 132,000 vaults and stretch just over two and a half miles in Clifton, running towards the location of the old power station at Agecroft.
Known as ‘towers’ in the trade, seven pylons in total are included in the scheme, but four are within Clifton Green housing estate. Together they power some 88,000 homes in the area. Varying in height up to 87ft tall, each pylon will be dissembled in sections, bolt by bolt, with the galvanised metal going off for scrap. New pylons – and power lines – will then be put in their place. The project is quite rare as pylons usually stand in open countryside. Electricity North West however described the work as ‘essential.’ Supplies to homes will not be affected, and is expected to run over eight weeks. One pylon, near Forest Bank prison, has already been changed and dependent on the weather, work could start within the housing estate on April 21.
Project manager Ian Baldock said: “They’ve started to degrade as they have been up for an awful long time.
“We check them on a regular basis to make sure that their conditions are okay but we discovered that these are beyond repair, hence the project.
“The towers were put up back in the time when it was just open countryside and the housing estate sprung up around the towers, I think in the 50s.
“We do these things all the time but the difference with this is that it is near housing.”
None of the pylons will be repositioned. Engineers have discussed plans with residents on the estate and letters have gone out.
Mr Baldock said each pylon would be taken to pieces in sections, cut with acetylene cylinders and specialist equipment: “It could take two to three days to change each tower, but we’ll stagger it all.
“We will take one tower down and put another one in its place. It’s like a big boy’s Meccano set.
“In this environment we have to do it a bit at a time. We have to consider the proximity of properties, which makes working in the area that bit more challenging.
“The original drawings were not that easy to come by because they are so old but they vary in height, with the highest around 87ft.”
Cranes will be used to lift sections of the new pylons into place, one by one.
Households with queries about the project can call Electricity North West on 105 or follow @ElectricityNW on Twitter.
The towers were put up when it was open countryside and the housing sprung up around it Ian Baldock, project manager