Planning to watch the Cooling Towers demolition? What you need to know

Planning to watch the Cooling Towers demolition? What you need to know

Many people want to watch the demolition of the Ironbridge Power Station cooling towers on Friday 6 December and we believe the best and safest place to see this will be online and we hope to be able to stream this live.

The demolition by developer Harworth is scheduled for around 11am. The site is in the Shropshire Council area, while many of the best vantage points to view this from are in Telford and Wrekin.

It is a condition of the legal demolition notice that Harworth has a traffic management plan to support the demolition happening as safely and in as managed a way as possible.

The traffic management plan, conditions for which have been set by Shropshire Council, is to support and keep people out of the 350m exclusion around the demolition site, reduce any conflict between vehicles and pedestrians and avoid traffic congestion and parking problems in the Gorge, particularly on a small number of narrow and steep minor roads close to the demolition.

The Council expects any traffic restrictions to stay in place until we receive the all-clear around one hour after the demolition.

The safest place to view the demolition will be online. Ironbridge will be open for business as usual and you’ll be able to walk most places as normal too, including those roads that are closed on the hillside.

If you are in the Gorge, please bear the following in mind:
• No on street parking
• All main car parks, except Dale End, will be open as normal. Station Yard car park will be easily accessible with the Severn Trent Water works suspended for the day of the demolition.
• We are running a free park and ride bus from the top of Jiggers Bank into the Museum of the Gorge car park in Ironbridge. This will run from 9.30am to 1pm
• Buildwas Road will be shut from 6am from Much Wenlock Road to Station Road allowing access to Dale End car park until 9.30am. The closure will the extend to Dale End mini-roundabout until we receive the all clear
• Some minor hillside roads will be closed to vehicles and some footpaths, opposite the power station site will also be closed from around 6am until after the all clear is given. This includes Benthall Wood.
• There will be managed access for residents and businesses on any roads closed outside the exclusion zone
• We know some people are also planning to climb the Wrekin to view the demolition. We’ll have a team at the car park at the foot of the Wrekin to keep an eye on parking and congestion – short term closures may be put in place if the area becomes full.

More information about the demolition is at https://www.telford.gov.uk/powerstation

The demolition is dependent on a number of factors. Adverse weather or other factors may cause the demolition to be delayed or postponed.