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McLaughlin & Harvey began work on the site in January on the £17.6m project to create new public space for the City of Edinburgh Council as part of a wider £1.3bn regeneration project to create a new coastal town at Granton Waterfront.
The space within the restored gasholder is to have play zones, a space for public art, seating, footpaths, and space for sports and events.
McLaughlin & Harvey civil engineering director Seamus Devlin said: “We bring with us a wealth of experience in the civil engineering sector, and look forward to completing the deconstruction of the bell this week and the removal of the walls in the upcoming weeks.”
Council leader Cammy Day said: “It was really dramatic to see the bell being ripped apart by the machinery. It marked a historic moment as this iconic structure will be transformed now to move on with the times to serve a completely different purpose for the local community to enjoy arts, sports and culture for future generations to come. Now the bell has gone the contractor can get on with the exciting work to transform the frame back to its original glory which will be seen for miles around.
“The scale and ambition of the gasholder nicely mirrors that of this £1.3bn regeneration project where we are using brownfield land to build a new sustainable 20-minute neighbourhood which is well linked to surrounding communities and is somewhere residents will be proud to live. We’ve already started building some of the thousands of environmentally friendly affordable homes planned and active travel routes, along with recently completing the restoration of the former Granton Station building to become a modern workplace and cultural hub, with public square.”
Granton was one of 12 gas storage tanks for the greater Edinburgh area. These 12 tanks had a combined capacity of 175,000 cubic meters of storage. At the time they were in operation the demand was around 28,000 cubic meters an hour.
The Granton gasholder had stood since 1901 and since been painted 72 times. It has 26 columns, each 42 metres high, 9.3 metres apart. More than 100,000 rivets hold the structure together.
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