Prime Time slot for Lanesborough demolition

The demolition of the Lanesborough Peat Power Station looks set to become the star of a new BBC primetime series. The series which is focussing on the work of demolition crews will feature the demolition of Boiler House 1 and 2 of the old Lanesborough Plant. A camera crew from the BBC were on hand on Saturday 17th February to capture the moment when Boiler House 2 was felled by controlled explosion. This was the second demolition on the site as Boiler House 1 was knocked towards the end of 2006.

The Lanesborough site is one of a number of sites identified in the ESB/CER Power Generation Asset Management strategy as a potential location for independent power generation. The demolition of the old plant is a necessary forerunner to the site being offered to potential investors. The demolition of Boiler House 3 is scheduled for April with the two chimneys planned for demolition towards the summer and the site being fully prepared by the end of 2007.

A foggy start to the day threatened to delay the work but in the end the sky cleared enough for the demolition crews to do their work. ESB staff and Robinson & Birdsell crews had worked to prepare the boiler house, removing loose debris and pre cutting the steel structure so that the building would fall obligingly.

The BBC crews used handheld and static cameras to record the event which will feature in the first two programmes of the series which are scheduled for broadcast on April 2nd and 3rd.

An attempt was made to capture the explosion from the air using a fixed camera mounted on a remote control airplane. This had to be abandoned at the last minute as the operator could not clearly see the plane at higher levels due to the fog.

The fog cleared enough for the demolition to take place at the appointed hour of nine am on the Saturday morning, with the preparation work already completed the demolition went smoothly. The steel structure toppled to the right and fell on cue.