Two giant floating cranes have lowered a 5,000t intake head for Hinkley Point C nuclear power station to the seabed of the Bristol Channel.
The Bristol Channel has the second highest tidal range in the world, making the operation to lower the intake head complex.
The intake head is set to be connected to the power station’s cooling water system. It is one of four intake and outfall heads for the power station.
Balfour Beatty constructed the heads at Avonmouth at a cost of £20m. They used a total of 125,000 reinforcing bars.
Balfour Beatty is in charge of the tunnelling and marine works at the power plant. Its role involves excavating a total of 9km of tunnels lined with 40,000 concrete segments.
The tunnels connect to the seabed via vertical shafts more than 40m in depth, capped by the intake and outfall heads that allow seawater to pass into the tunnels for the cooling system.
