09.10.2014
Temporary Removal of Historic Cranes from Power Station Jetty
Battersea Power Station Development Company (“BPSDC”), on behalf of the shareholders of Battersea Power Station, confirms that work is underway on the temporary removal of the two listed cranes located on the riverside jetty.
The cranes are being dismantled so that they can be transported by barge down to the Port of Tilbury for storage prior to restoration, before being returned to the jetty and reinstated by the latter half of 2017, in time for the opening of the Power Station and new Riverside Park in 2019.
The removal of the cranes will enable the transportation of spoil from the Northern Line Extension tunnelling works by river rather than road, and ensure the cranes are safely stored prior to restoration works.
Three local primary schools have been invited to take part in a competition to name the barge that will be used to transport the cranes from Battersea to Tilbury. The barge will take the name of the winning entry and will make up to 10 trips up and down the river with the dismantled cranes. The children from St George’s, Chesterton and Griffin Primary Schools have been asked to come up with a suitable name that conveys the important job the vessel will be doing to preserve the heritage of the site, as well as a picture explaining their name choices. The winning child will be invited to an official naming ceremony at the Power Station site.
The cranes are believed to have been installed in the 1950s and were decommissioned in 1983. They were used to unload coal into hoppers over the conveyors that fed the Power Station when it was fully functioning and unloaded up to 240 tonnes of coal per hour. In the thirty years during which they have stood dormant, they have structurally deteriorated and now require urgent restoration.
Having removed the cranes to permit use of the jetty for spoil removal, the restoration of the cranes needs to take place in a secure but easily accessible location off-site. The restoration will be carried out by a crane specialist using original photos, drawings, paint samples and archive materials.
Philip Gullet, Chief Operating Officer at BPSDC said: “The historic cranes are as much an integral part of Battersea Power Station as the building itself and the purpose of transferring them down to Tilbury is to make sure they are in safe storage whilst the jetty is used for spoil removal and conveniently located for the vital restoration works. When the cranes are reinstated on the jetty they will have been meticulously restored and be a terrific focal point for what will be a new six acre public park and the newly-opened Power Station.”
Perry Glading, Chief Operating Officer at Forth Ports, owners of Port of Tilbury said: “We are thrilled that the Port of Tilbury is playing its part in the refurbishment of the iconic Battersea Power Station cranes. This is the first in a number of planned logistics solutions that S.Walsh is pulling together with the Port of Tilbury through our new partnership, the London Construction Link. As we've demonstrated at Battersea Power Station, the river is a viable solution for moving large structures out, as well as construction materials in to projects on or near the Thames. Lying 22 miles from Tower Bridge, with 500,000 square metres of warehouse space and well developed stock management IT systems, we believe the Port of Tilbury presents a commercially and logically viable solution for developers. Through the greater use of the river and construction consolidation, the London Construction Link has the potential to make large inroads into the effort to remove lorry movements from the capital's roads."
For more information about the crane restoration process, please visit:
