Luke Cooke, Balfour Beatty’s Offshore Delivery Manager has featured in New Civil Engineer discussing how offshore works at Hinkley Point C enter the final stages of completion.
In the article, Luke shares how works on the cooling system have progressed significantly over the last year as the project team continues to prepare one of two reactor buildings to be built for electricity generation by the summer of 2027.
This includes the arrival of two jack-up vessels, each spanning the length of a football pitch with a combined lifting capacity of 1,500 tonnes, responsible for installing the new cooling system's components.
Last summer, saw the installation of six 5,000 tonne concrete intake heads to the Bristol Channel seabed via the use of unique, specialist cranes. Holes will now be drilled into the heads over the coming months to construct shafts that will connect to intake tunnels – forming a critical part of the power station’s new cooling system.
Commenting on the construction of the shafts, Luke said: "We've got six different locations and quite varied ground conditions across each. So in terms of complexities, its how we can get the casing to a safe depth where it's stable."
To read the article in full and learn more about our progress at Hinkley Point C, click here.