Spike

Actually there is a very good view over the hoarding into the site from the upstairs windows of the McDonalds opposite. Worth wandering in to see.

I know the exploratory drilling showed
3 meters made ground
3 meters gravel
6 meters boulder clay
with limestone bedrock at about 12 meters below street level

but the proposed excavation was only for 5 meters. I wonder if they decided to go deeper…?

Has anyone figured out how to climb the spike when it’s finished??? I’m thinking a large loop of gripping material (rubber) and really grippy shoes. Grip is the main thing….

fjp

(this is humor, although I will certainly be visiting McDonalds tomorrow)

apparently the spike would act as an ideal lightning conducter, as a result they had to make the foundations a lot deeper – so it would be able to withstand a lightning strike…

wonder if you can play hoopla with some onion rings onto the spike from said macdonalds.

God help anyone who is leaning against it during a storm if it conducts lighting. Surely this cant be the case!!!
Perhaps the lighting will run from the tip (ie above the perforated glass section ) via a rod through the centre of the spire. Does anyone know for definite?

I’m sure it will be earthed etc……….however it would make a great spectacle if it did conduct lightening.

rumour has it that they will use lightening strikes connected to the tram cables to jump start the Luas after the local gurriers stall them by throwing old unfashionable Kangaroo runner boots over the trams conducting rods.

There was a piece in one of the papers in the last three weeks saying that the lightning would indeed travel through a rod in the centre of the Spire. The city council said that the possibility of lightning was always part of the considerations and the original design plan. And they said there was no possible danger. If only I could remember which paper I saw it in.
PS: When was the last time anyone saw fork lightning in Dublin. I think it must be wacky Michael O’Nuallain putting this about out of desperation.

it was a letter in the irish times, someone has written in worry about it and someone from the council replied. i once saw the empire state building being hit by lightening. it was awesome.

Yup Nutty O’Nullain had this particular threat “electricution of passers by” and “explosion of light at tip, impailing passers by with pieces of shattered glass” (bit like the omen really) published in The Times, Indo, Hearald and Star.

Him… bitter…never!!!

As I’ve said before. Every time, O’Nuallian writes a letter or makes a comment about the Spire, it should be accompanied by the flying saucer design that he suggested, to show just how batty he is.
I spoke to him one time and asked him was his design (a flying saucer on top of a replica of the stump of Nelson’s Pillar) a joke. He said it wasn’t.

There was an article in the Northside People which claimed the spike would be top heavy.

How about impaling O Nuallain and other knockers and detractors on the Spike as a tribute that great Dub Bram Stoker author of Dracula (aka Vlad the Impaler).

Kefu said
“When was the last time anyone saw fork lightning in Dublin”

Curiously enough, last night.
Perhaps the great architect having a dry run at whacking the Spike.

an eerie coincidence

Am away from Dublin at the moment and was just wondering how this is progressing. Any word on a finish date?

I too am out of the country and would like to hear more on the project, there is a distinct lack of excitment over something that I feel we will come to love.

Im currently living in Melbourne Australia, a city that trys a bit too hard with modern designs and brave new sculptures. This has led to some very ugly results, but also many beautiful creations that have given the city its own charachter. And the people discuss and argue over such projects regularly.

I wish we had such a culture at home and thats why I hope projects like the Spiar create more discusson.

Any one care to post pictures by the wonder of modern digicam??

At the moment it is really little more than a hole in the ground.

No It is not correct to say that it is just a hole in the ground. The foundation is pretty much complete – this incorporates an underground room to access the electrics/lighting etc.
A large crane will be positioned on site this month and the Spike itself will be erected over a 2week period next month.

Here is a drawing of the spike at night

All the Ian Richie images are here
http://www.irish-architecture.com/onsite/spike/

The Suday Times “Sue Denham” column suggested given all the delays in building this project (and th fact that there is just a big excavation at the moment) that it should be nicknamed “the pain in the hole” (along the same lines as “the tart with the cart” etc)

Does anyone know what the current status is ?
From having viewed from buses and adjacent
buildings the foundations look solid and an area
looks like it is being prepared for a crane, but there’s
no sign of one, which means it’s at least a month behind schedule.

Actually about 2 months ago the schedules they
erected on-site disappeared.

Also does anyone have any details on the actual erection ? Is the spire actually pre-fab’d as a single
piece ?

And have any more details on the plate at the base
been released yet ? I remember being disapointed
seeing the mockups after they scrapped the mercury
flowing thing, but I can’t seem to find anything.

Should be finished by November……was delayed by a strike in France where the rolled steel is being manufactured. At the moment that hole in the ground is part of the foundations which will include a chamber where the eletrics etc …..will be housed to light the spire.