Demolition contractor Keltbray is primed to demolish four of the remaining cooling towers at the Ferrybridge ‘C’ power station in West Yorkshire next month.
The work follows the successful demolition in July this year of the 114m-high tower six at the plant, for client SSE.
The hyperbolic cooling towers have a stressed skin design. Keltbray aims to disrupt the shell of the towers with explosives in such a way that they collapse in on themselves, with 90% of the structure landing within its own footprint.
Keltbray drilled around 3,000 holes in the shell of the cooling tower six, in order to install a charge line, as well as placing charges around the legs of the structure, which caused it to collapse.
The four remaining towers are due to be demolished on 13 October, with all demolition expected to be fully completed by summer 2021.
The coal-fired Ferrybridge ‘C’ began generating electricity in 1966 and was the first such plant in Europe to succeed in generating electricity from a 500MW machine. It was closed in 2016.
