Over the past weekend, the river by North Greenwich was due to be closed to allow the cables to be strung between the tall pylons. This did not happen – and I wandered over to see why. Some test wires have already been loaded onto the northernmost pylon and linking down to the terminus building – but the tallest pylon, which sits in the river next to Silvertown still hasn’t had its cap added.
More significantly though, the southern pylon, which should be a tall mast by now was still a stump in the river.
Well, that explains the delay then!
A notice from the Port of London Authority that the cable stringing event had been put back to this coming weekend was supported by a number of road and pedestrian closure signs dotted around the northern side of the river.
I also took a chance to have a look at the northern terminus building, which sits on a concrete raft within the dock itself. Would have probably been more dramatic if the building was right in the middle of the dock with a walkway – but that would have been harder/more expensive to build. Alas.
Assuming the southern pylon is completed on time — and the weather is favourable — then this weekend will be the Big Media Event to string the cables across the river.
I was over at the Greenwich North area the other day and saw that end of it. I thought the end building where the cables went in looked like a massive sandspeeder from Star Wars and thought that was a ‘pod’ initially, until my other half pointed out it’s the mechanism where the cables go in and come out again, like a ski lift. Doh. Amazed at how quickly it’s all happened so far.