Tall order for engineers

Photo: Darren Robinson

THE chimney demolition platform at Delta's Greenacres HQ.

AN ENGINEERING firm which specialises in contracts for tall buildings and structures has been involved in a contract to design and build a self-supporting climbing platform to demolish a chimney at the Sellafield nuclear processing facility.

Delta International constructed a replica chimney at its site in Greenacres, Oldham, to test the platform to ensure that it meets all its requirements before being transported and reassembled in Cumbria.

The platform design and fabrication contract has lasted 12 months and supported 20 jobs for Delta. Building the replica chimney also needed specific planning permission.

Delta, based at Wrigley Street, is working in support of Nuvia Limited, which specialises in the decommissioning of nuclear facilities around the world.

Delta International works on engineering projects including power, processing, manufacturing and historical sites. Structures include cooling towers, flare stacks, process columns, pipe work, tanks and tall vessels. Its work combines the latest design and engineering techniques with steeplejack, rope access and other working-at-height services. Other contracts have included the deconstruction of the landmark chimneys at London's Battersea Power Station, to enable their rebuilding, and installation of aircraft warning lights on the One Canada Square skyscraper at Canary Wharf.

The Delta platform will be used by workers at Sellafield to demolish a chimney dating from the 1950s. It can climb the chimney at the speed of 5mm per second and its diameter can be enlarged or reduced to fit the chimney's tapered size.

Eleanor Hill, a director with Delta International, said: "We have been working on this platform with two shifts a day. The Sellafield chimney is right in the middle of the site and has to be dismantled in a controlled way with the debris removed by tipping buckets and disposed of in an appropriate way for the nuclear industry. The self-supporting platform does not affect the sub-strength of the concrete chimney."

Elsewhere Delta has constructed self-supporting platforms for the BP Coryton oil refinery in Essex and at Battersea Power Station. The former London power station is being redeveloped for homes and leisure, and pop stars Harry Styles and Sting have reportedly bought flats there.

Delta International has a number of trainee engineers and steeplejacks including James Thompson (24), who recently completed a NVQ level 2 apprenticeship and has worked on the Sellafield platform contract. James, a former St Matthew's High school pupil from Moston, worked at Delta for three-month periods and spent a month at the Construction Industry Training Board's Bircham Newton College in Norfolk to complete his training. Other apprentices include Steve Kremner and Josh Tinker.

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