Brighton i360Newsletter - Issue 4 - November 3rd 2014

Welcome to the 4th project newsletter for the Brighton i360. It’s been another busy month with work continuing on the sewer and services diversion, design meetings to finalise the pod and more opportunities to meet our local community.

The work underground

As we clear more ground, the team have had to deal with another batch of unforeseen problems: rogue cables lying across the sea wall, an area we had to excavate to make way for the new sewer. We also found another cable that was threatening to complicate our new concrete cable tunnel. Eventually each rogue cable was tracked back to its source (in one case we just found

another loose end!) and removed by UK Power Networks.

Now that the site is clear, we have removed the sea wall and the sewer tunnel is taking shape. We have also completed work on the concrete tunnel and the new cables have been fed through. During the first week of November UKPN will join the cables to the existing network.

The work above ground

Alongside our successes underground, we also gave several talks across the city, mounted our time lapse cameras on top of the Hilton and hosted our second community meeting, which you can read more about on the back page.

Supporting the Living Wage

Brighton i360 was also one of the first major tourism attractions to sign up to the Living Wage Campaign in Brighton & Hove.

It means that we commit to paying its staff well over the minimum wage. Eleanor Harris, CEO of Brighton i360, explains why she backs the decision:

“We want to attract and retain great people who are able to deliver outstanding customer service.

“We believe that paying decent wages will have a direct and positive impact on our bottom line.”

Join our team!

We are looking for a new member of the team! We have an exciting opportunity for a new and dynamic Sales Manager.

The role involves identifying potential clients and market opportunities for the i360 as well as developing a package of commercial benefits and / or sponsorship rights for partners. Full details are on our website.

In Holland, the 17 separate ‘cans’ that make up the tower have arrived. To allow us to bolt them together, we need each can to have a lip, or a ‘flange’. Because of the very precise nature of our cans, the flanges are being forged in a specialist factory in Spain.

The pod is being designed and built in France and once we had the green light for the build, Poma started manufacture of the bull wheels that fit inside the tower and will be used in the drive system to move the pod.

Summer 2014

The first major works on any site involve clearing and preparing the ground. For the i360 this meant a focus on services and sewer diversions. We knew there would be 8 electrical cables and a Victorian sewer beneath us, but we were not exactly sure where!

Planning the work and excavating the site has been a painstakingly delicate procedure and we are still working hard to build the 120 metres of sewer pipe and the concrete tunnel that will house the new cables.

Winter 2014

Once we have managed the services, we drill the deep foundations needed for any construction work. These are called ‘pilings’.

The first set of concrete ‘piles’ need to be 11m deep in the shingle ground. These will take the weight of the building - it will sit on top like stilts. To build them we will use a 30m high piling rig.

Once these are in place we start on the secant pilings, which will create the outer walls of the basement. The scalloped columns interlock to hold the shingle back when we excavate.

At the same time in Holland, work will begin welding the flanges to the cans. Once complete, they are shipped to Rotterdam so that we can start on the secondary steelwork: the ladders and platforms that sit inside each can.

Innovative engineeringMuch of the recent focus has been on the works underground, but Chief Engineer Dr John Roberts is far more excited about the innovative tower build.

Over the next few newsletters we will look in more detail about some of the finer points of the build and how the engineers coped with the challenges of proportion, deflection and balance.

Proportions

The pod is designed so that two hundred people will be able to move freely within as it travels up the tower, but just looking at the projected picture of the tower triggers perplexed looks; surely it is too slender to support the pod, let alone all the movement?

This is what is always going to be the wow-factor of the i360. The incredibly slender design is only 4.5m in diameter, 3.9m if you remove the cladding. It has a “slenderness ratio” of 1:40, which for all you non-engineers out there is quite remarkable. The Shard, for instance, has a ratio of 1:6. We are closer to the ratio of a palm tree at 1:74!

Balance

200 adults can weigh up to 18-20 tonnes. What would happen if someone spotted a whale on one side and everyone raced over to photograph it?

There is no need to worry. The pod rises on a cantilever system; shifting the weight to one side will not affect it. In fact we could take more than 200 but have limited it for comfort.

Spring 2015

With the piling in place we can start to excavate the basement. We are removing more weight than we are putting back, so we know the ground beneath the shingle can support the tower. There will be an enormous concrete pour once the basement has been excavated. Over 4000 tonnes will be poured in a continuous 30-hour operation. That is the same as 14,000 baths or 5,600,000 cups of tea!

Meanwhile, in Holland, the completed cans will be blast-cleaned, hot-metal sprayed and painted so that they are protected from corrosion.

In France, manufacture of the component parts of the pod begins. It will be created in segments - like an orange - and will fit together perfectly around the tower.

Summer 2015

The most economical way to transport 17 steel tubes with a combined weight of 1000 tonnes, is sea freight. This is not unusual, most heavy freight travels by sea. What is different about the i360 build is the destination of the shipment: we shall be bringing our freight via sea barge directly to the site.

To build the tower, we are going to use a huge jacking machine that is bigger than the Brighton wheel. Parts 17, 16 and 15 (the bottom segments) will all go into place and then the jacking machine will be built around them. Part 1 will then be shunted along on specially designed rails to sit above part 15. This is when it starts to get exciting. Part 1 will rise up out of the jack as part 2 gets shunted along to sit beneath it. Part 2 is then jacked up as part 3 is moved in, and so forth. The tower will literally be rising up from the ground!

Each new connection requires 2 days to lift and bolt together. We use bolts as it is going to be impossible to weld on the seafront.

As the tower starts to ascend, the team will get the final bits of concrete frame in place for the base building and the site drainage. At the same time, in France, the Poma team will assemble the completed pod for testing. It will then be dismantled for the journey to Brighton via Eurotunnel.

Autumn / Winter 2015

In she comes via Eurotunnel: our segments of glass pod. As assembly on-site begins, everyone will start to get a sense of how big our pod will be.

Spring / Summer 2016

The pod is completed and the drive system is installed and tested.

While everyone watches our glass pod take shape around our magnif-icent tower, the team below will be hard at work on the base building. The Victorian toll booths will be put back in place as ticket booths, the West Pier columns will go in, the restaurant and conference rooms will be created and our visitor shop will appear.

This is the last part of the build to take place and will see our tower turn into an attraction.

All that is left is to open the doors...!

Would you like to know more?

If you would like us to come and talk to your community or business group, please get in touch.

You can contact our Public Liaison Officer, Ruth Chapman, at enquiries@brightoni360.co.uk.

A busy November calendar

We have a busy calendar of events In November. David Marks, our Chairman, and Eleanor Harris, our Chief Executive, will be attending the Greater Brighton City Region Event on the 6th. Both will also be presenting later on the 20th at the West Pier Trust AGM.

Eleanor likes to keep herself busy in the community: during the same week as the West Pier presentation, she is speaking to members of the Chamber of Commerce, presenting the ‘Innovation Award’ at Brighton and Hove Hotel Awards and heading down to the Juice Breakfast studios!

David is also attending the Sussex Enterprise talk on 25th November.

Twitter: @thebrightoni360

Facebookwww.facebook.com/pages/Brighton-1360

Pinterestwww.pinterest.com/Brightoni360

The i360 bloghttp://brightoni360.wordpress.com

We send out a newsletter each month, full of interesting updates about the i360: from the build to our community events. If you know anyone that might enjoy our newsletter, please pass this on to them and let them know they can sign up for more information on our website : http://www.brightoni360.co.uk/

You can also keep up to date on our progress by following us on social media:

Keep up to date with our news!Last month saw us hosting our second

community meeting. We think it is really important that we make time to speak to our closest neighbours to tell them exactly where we are with the work and answer any questions.

It was a great meeting and we were able to go into more detail about our timeline and what was happening in the next few weeks onsite. We were also able to tackle questions, dispelling rumours about plans for parking - the work to strengthen the arches is not so that we can drive our tour coaches onto the pavement!

Understanding the traffic

Whilst we joked about coaches, the issue of traffic is more serious and is often raised as a concern: the i360 will surely bring more traffic to the city?

As part of our project plans we have studied vehicle movement statistics obtained from traffic cameras, which show there is no increase in cars during the summer when the tourists visit, nor have the number of cars gone up even though the overall number of tourists visiting the city has increased. Traffic is affected more by commuters than tourists.

As can be seen in the graph below during the summer months, there is an upturn of tourists (shown in red) and at visitor attractions (shown in green), but seafront vehicle movements have a flat line (shown in blue).

The community meeting Although we don’t anticipate huge problems because of the i360, we agree that congestion needs tackling. We will encourage our visitors wherever possible to take public transport, walk or cycle to our venue and are supportive of a new park and ride scheme, which we hope will be in place by the time we open.

If people do need to drive, we will make sure we direct them to the west of the city, away from the busy city centre.