Part of a huge industrial structure has ended up landing into the River Tees following a controlled explosive demolition at Redcar Bulk Terminal (RBT) despite an official notice stating the operation would ensure the structures were brought down on the landward side of the terminal.
Do you like that?
There are probably few ways of demolishing one of Redcar’s enormous industrial cranes that could ever be described as subtle. Explosives were always part of the plan. The direction of travel, however, appears to have been rather more important. A controlled explosive demolition was carried out at Redcar Bulk Terminal on Wednesday 23 September as part of work to remove redundant rail-mounted cranes from the site.
The history of the Redcar Bulk Terminal cranes
The crane that was demolished was one of two built by the British Steel Corporation in 1973. The cranes imported coal and iron ore to supply the neighbouring Redcar steelworks, which began construction at the same time. Between them, the cranes could handle up to 18.5mn tonnes of bulky cargo per year. But, after standing for 53 years, the cranes were life-expired.
The second crane was also scheduled for demolition during this operation. Photographs taken following the operation show a sprawling mass of turquoise and rust-coloured steel collapsed across the terminal.
How it started…
Planning permission had been granted for the demolition of the two existing cranes, and their rails. This will be followed by the construction of two replacement rail-mounted cranes and new rails.
How its going…
At the edge of the quay, however, things have become rather more interesting. A substantial section of the structure can be seen extending beyond the quay wall and down into the River Tees. That matters because the official instructions issued ahead of the demolition were unusually clear about where these enormous structures were supposed to end up.
The plan was landward
PD Ports, the statutory harbour authority for the Tees, issued a Notice to Mariners ahead of the demolition.
Notice No.37, updated by the Harbour Master on 18 September, stated that Redcar Bulk Terminal Limited would be removing redundant shoreside unloader cranes at the terminal. PD Ports’ Notice No.37 can be found at this link.
The operation would involve what the notice described as “weakening explosives and pulling ropes to ensure the structures are laid onto the landward side of the Terminal.”
To me…to you…
Not hopefully landward. Not somewhere in the general vicinity of landward.
The stated purpose of the explosives and pulling ropes was to ensure the structures were laid there. The explosive demolition was scheduled for noon on Wednesday.
The notice established a 200-metre exclusion zone around the cranes from 11.30am, with the safety boat RLM Cerberus positioned outside that zone throughout the operation. Vessel movements were to be controlled by Tees Vessel Traffic Service.
There was even a carefully prescribed sequence of warning signals; a ten-second horn five minutes before the demolition, another beginning twenty seconds before, and detonation approximately ten seconds later. Things could have done a lot worse, I suppose.
This was, in other words, a planned industrial demolition with detailed arrangements governing what happened around it. What happened to the structure itself now raises questions.
Into the Tees
Photographs supplied to North East Bylines and taken following Wednesday’s operation show one of the enormous structures collapsed across the terminal.
Much of it is indeed on land. Conveyors, gantries and steelwork lie twisted together across the site beneath one of the remaining upright structures.
But photographs taken from further along the Tees show that one large yellow and rust-coloured section reaches across the edge of the quay, its lower end descending into the river.
Large sections of the collapsed machinery can also be seen close to the quay wall.
Workers in high-visibility clothing are visible inspecting the area following the demolition.
North East Bylines understands that the demolition programme had already undergone changes before Wednesday’s operation.
A source who has been documenting the work said demolition had previously been expected to take place in separate stages, before plans changed for two structures to be brought down during Wednesday’s operation.
Was this Plan B?
The source said only one crane was ultimately detonated. North East Bylines has not independently verified the reasons for those changes or why the second structure remained standing following the operation.
What can be established independently is rather simpler. The Harbour Master’s notice scheduled an explosive demolition for 23 September.
It said explosives and pulling ropes would be used to ensure the structures were laid on the landward side. Photographs taken afterwards show part of a demolished structure extending over the quay and into the River Tees.
PD Ports may need to issue a further Notice to Mariners due to the hazard to shipping next to the terminal, unless the wreckage has fallen clear of the marked shipping lane.
Redcar Bulk Terminal has been contacted for comment.
Part of a much bigger redevelopment
The demolition is not taking place in isolation.
Redcar Bulk Terminal is undergoing substantial change as the industrial landscape along this stretch of the Tees continues to be transformed following the closure of Redcar steelworks in 2015.
The terminal once played an integral role in supplying the steelworks, handling vast quantities of coal and iron ore arriving on Teesside.
Today it operates as a deep-water port handling bulk cargo and providing logistics and storage facilities, while the wider South Tees site is increasingly being redeveloped around new industries.
The scale of the structures helps explain why their removal requires considerably more planning than simply attaching a wrecking ball and hoping everyone stands well back.
Redcar Bulk Terminal itself occupies a strategically important position on the Tees, with a 320-metre quay capable of accommodating large vessels.
Removing enormous pieces of ageing industrial infrastructure from the edge of a working river is therefore never going to be straightforward.
That does not make the outcome of Wednesday’s operation any less worthy of scrutiny.
What happens now?
The immediate question is what happens to the section now extending beyond the quay.
It is not yet clear whether the structure entered the river in accordance with any contingency arrangements, whether the quay or associated infrastructure sustained damage, whether material entered the water, or what recovery work will now be required.
There may be an entirely reasonable explanation for what happened, including contingency arrangements made for precisely this sort of eventuality.
Redcar Bulk Terminal should be given the opportunity to provide it. But the discrepancy itself is difficult to ignore.
The official notice said weakening explosives and pulling ropes would be used to ensure the structures were laid on the landward side of the terminal.
The photographs taken afterwards show part of one of those structures extending beyond the quay and into the Tees.
For an operation in which the direction of travel was written down beforehand, the final resting place has left one rather obvious question.
What happened?Thank you to James Waterson for providing additional research for this article.
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