Infrastructure

Cape Town's Athlone Towers to be demolished

09 Aug, 2010

One of Cape Town's most well-known landmarks is scheduled to disappear on 22 August. Both cooling towers from the decommissioned Athlone power station are to be demolished in the interests of public safety.

Built in 1960, it is the last coal-fired power station in Cape Town and stands on the outskirts of the city near the N2 motorway. The towers had been extensively reinforced over the last decade but are now in danger of collapsing even before demolition takes place.

The city's disaster risk management department is monitoring the situation on a daily basis, while the team in charge of the demolition is busy drilling each tower with 3,000 holes which will be packed with explosives.

A pair of nesting falcons, which has been living in the towers since the 1980s, is being encouraged to move to specially built nests in a nearby building.

Plans for the redevelopment of the site have not yet been announced.