The landmark Athlone cooling towers will grace the city's skyline for another five weeks before they are demolished simultaneously with a bang.
The towers are set to come down on Sunday, August 22 at noon after extensive consultation and planning by the city and demolition experts after strengthening rings on one of the towers collapsed six months ago.
With 6 000 dynamite charges, the towers will come down simultaneously when explosive experts implode the 80m high, 9 000m² concrete structures.
Jet Demolition, the firm appointed to demolish the towers, and Knight Piésold Consulting, which has been appointed to investigate engineering solutions to the structural instability of the towers, are working closely with the city to properly cover all aspects of the demolition.
The City's Disaster Risk Management team would monitor wind speeds on a daily basis and had a plan in place should the wind speed become excessive.
"Whilst it will be sad to lose the 'two old ladies of Athlone', they have come to the end of their useful lives. The eventual re-use of the site will allow the power station site to be redeveloped in full," said Clive Justus, mayoral committee member for utility services. - Staff Writer