Blow down executed flawlessly at Cottam Power Station!

Cottam Power Station is situated in primarily agricultural land on the west bank of the River Trent in Nottinghamshire, 6 miles east of Retford and directly adjacent to Cottam village.
The project comprises the decommissioning, hazardous insulating materials removal, dismantling and demolition of buildings and structures.

Construction work of the power station commenced in April 1964 with Unit 1 becoming operational in June 1968. The primary fuel to the power station was coal, with heavy fuel oil used for PF ignition and stabilization purposes as well as a dedicated biomass stream.
There is a railway line leading into the site which was previously used for coal deliveries and the tracks remain in place at present in the coal stock area.
Designed to operate for 30 years, the plant was in operation for over half a century.

The wider site includes the live National Grid operational 400kV substation to the south and the Cottam Development Centre, owned and operated by Uniper, to the north-west.

Working closely with EDF Energy and the other stakeholders on site, we have developed a traffic management system to minimise disruption to the nearby communities as well as adhering to local authority restrictions on the surrounding roads.

An extensive environmental scheme has been implemented including a habitat survey to monitor species such as breeding birds (peregrine and black start), badgers, bats, great crested newts, reptiles and water voles.

In addition there is also the potential to unearth artefacts of archaeological significance given the local history of the area dating back to medieval times.

The station comprises, but not limited, to  the removal of 4 x 500MW John Thompson boilers , 4No English Electric turbines, 8No natural draught cooling towers, 1No 190.5m high RC chimney, deaerator and bunker bay, FGD plant, precipitators, ducting, administration offices, workshops, control room and fuel/ash handling facilities. Situated to the east of the station is the River Trent and the make-up water facilities.

Our work commenced on site in early August 2021, with completion scheduled for early February 2026.

Our waste management process designed to handle the various streams generated by our works and removed either for recycling, treatment/reuse and landfill has, to date, generated a Demolition Recovery Index (DRI) rate of 98.67%.