Didcot A cooling towers demolished
Demolition experts Coleman & Company bring down three 114m high cooling towers with controlled explosion
AT 5.00am on Sunday 27 July, three disused cooling towers at RWE npower’s Didcot A power station, in Oxfordshire, were razed to the ground in a matter of seconds using more than 180kg of explosives.
The trio of 114m high towers, which had dominated the skyline around the town of Didcot since 1970, were part of a coal-fired power station which ceased generating last year as part of the drive to replace older, less-efficient power stations in the UK with modern, low-carbon power generation.
The controlled explosion, which brought down some 40,000 tonnes of reinforced concrete in just 10 seconds, was planned and carried out by Birmingham-based demolition specialists Coleman & Company.
Speaking at the time, managing director Mark Coleman said: ‘Today’s demolition has been delivered on schedule, safely and with minimal disruption. We would like to thank all our stakeholders for supporting us throughout the planning and execution of the explosive demolition, in particular Thames Valley Police, the Highways Agency, Network Rail, local councils and the HSE.’
RWE Generation UK announced the closure of the 2,000MW Didcot A power station in September 2012 after 42 years of service. The station finally shut down on 31 March 2013 and a nine-month decommissioning process finished in November last year.
Kevin Nix, head of RWE Generation UK, said: ‘Although this is a sad day and the end of an era in many ways, I’m very pleased that the technically challenging demolition of the southern cooling towers has been carried out successfully and, above all, with the safety of all those involved, including the local community, as the highest priority. This is entirely due to months of pre-planning and the professionalism of the specialist teams involved.’
Coleman & Company will now continue their work to ensure the that demolition of the rest of the site, including the northern cooling towers and the chimney stack, is safely completed by the end of 2016.
