Safety inspections under the cover of darkness

Under the cover of darkness, maintenance engineers scale the iconic Liverpool tower St Johns Beacon for safety inspections.

Described by Historic England as “embodying the spirit of the space age”, Liverpool’s St Johns Beacon is a Grade II listed communications and observation tower. It was designed by James A Roberts Associates, built in 1969 and opened by Queen Elizabeth II. The tower is 138 metres (453 ft) tall, offering visitors panoramic views of the Wirral, North Wales, Lancashire and – on a clear day – Snowdonia and Blackpool.

RSK Group company CAN Structures was contracted to carry out a defect survey and concrete testing of the structure, following previous inspections in 2011 and 2015. CAN Project Manager Louis Thomas says: “We carried out acoustic hammer tests – tap tests – on the entire concrete façade of the tower. Defects were recorded and depth of carbonation and covermeter tests were taken. The steelwork at the top of the tower and the windows to the ‘doughnut’ also received a full visual inspection.”

Technicians suspended nearly 140 metres in the air carried out tests on the concrete and steel of St Johns Beacon using specialist rope access techniques. “Access to the underside of the ‘doughnut’ proved particularly challenging,” Thomas notes. “Initial access was gained through lighting openings on the underside of the tower, and we then put up rigging between the adjacent openings. The staging platform we call ‘CAN-Span’ was then winched up from ground level to enable technicians to get within touching distance of the underside of the tower to carry out their inspections.”

Only by night

Work was carried out through the night over the course of nine days so that the streets below could be closed during the works. For safety, a considerable cordon was necessary. Several roads, footpaths and pedestrian areas within an extended footprint of the tower were closed by Liverpool City Council.

Munroe K Asset Management manages the building. Director Roger Fulford says: “The Beacon tower is iconic in Liverpool and, like all buildings, needs to be inspected and maintained. For most buildings, the view while doing so is significantly less dramatic. The information gathered during this inspection will be used to assess maintenance schedules and inform us of the condition of the structure so that it can be future-proofed, ensuring it remains an integral part of the city’s skyline for many years to come.”

For more information, visit b.link/RSK_buildings