The Spike
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Jesus, this one surely runs and runs.. like Blackhall Bridge and Grattan Bridge and the Halfpenny bridge refurbishment, months and months and months behind schedule. I’d say September.. Take yer time lads! The tourist season’ll be over by then.. oops forgot the builders holidays, maybe October!
This is crazy, it really is. We have put up with so much, and been so accepting of all other delays, ‘they need to get it right’ ‘there’s no point rushing’ etc, but this is madness, it really is.
And the granite base, after just laying down concrete slabs? What the hell is going on!!!
And there’s nothing current on their website…The official unveiling of the Spire has been delayed until June, because of problems with the lighting system. The light at the top of the 120 metre monument doesn’t meet the Irish Aviation Authority’s requirements. It’s being sent back to Britain for further testing, while the City Council uses the delay to complete work on the granite paving around the Spire.
Am I missing something? The Spire isn’t _that_ high.. why on earth does it need an elaborate aviation light? Surely any light would do?
Also, I noticed they’ve places bollards all around the Spire, not even in any discernable pattern (the bollards on the west side of the Spire are in a straight line, while on the east they follow the curve of the spire). Are these permanent? They’ll ruin the effect of the base of the Spire, i think.
P.
I don’t understand the bollards myself. A neat circle around the spire would seem more logical.
To the best of my knowledge, there’s only one aircraft that overflies the city at low altitude by night, the Garda helicoptor. Surely they know to steer clear?
James
I saw the LEDs light up at the top when they were testing, clearly visible from a great distance (though not as glaringly obvious as the big red beacon). Obviously the effect was too subtle to warn off the hundreds of drunken, low-flying daredevil pilots that fill the air over o’connell street of an evening…
As for the mid-way aviation light, needed for the stratospheric height of, what…60 metres? Are the IAA for real? At this rate everyone over six feet tall will have to wear warning lights on their heads to avoid mid-air collisions.
The middle light completely spoils the vertical effect of the Spire that draws your line of sight up to the tip. When it was switched on, I saw people ignoring the top, pointing at the middle and saying, ‘yeah, but what’s that for?’ It’s certainly not what Ritchie proposed.
When DCC says the opening is now June, you can add at least four months onto that. It’ll soon be joked about as our latest half-finished, not-quite-working Millennium project, and if it ever is unveiled, it’ll have taken so long, it’ll be a damp squib.
This is not good enough!What drunks put in those bollards or is someone trying to make a fractil – their locations make no sense at all – also I’m fed up with the light on the tip it looks stupid and out of character with the rest of it – its as if somebody put a big red dot on the nose of the Mona Lisa so that people would notice it in the Louvre. I haven’t seen the midway light yet but it sounds like another bad idea
Has Ian Richie expressed an opinion of this latest mess? The two aviation lights certaintly make a mockery of his vision.
This the same vision that was once proposed for a shopping centre entrance, or so I have heard? Anyway since the height of this structure was going to have aviaiton issues surely this should be part of the design development, or do designers live in a cocoon of suspended responsibility?
I hadn’t realised about the bollards. I dispair. This is some bloody country, can anything be done properly and even remotely on time or budget?
The more I see the bollards, the worse they become.
And again, the granite paving?! Why have the concrete slabs been laid?
And, work on the plaza was supposed to begin ‘early in the new year’.
It’s not just you; there’s quite a lot of dirt streaks down the length of it. Since they have self-cleaning glass (some kind of coating that reacts with rain, I presume?), wouldn’t it have been possible to the same with the Spire?
Dirty, with great fecking bollards and a Red Nose Day light on top. And it’s only been up 3 months….
P.
I walk down Talbot street every morning towards the spike and on when the sun is shining (as it has been for the last two weeks) it still looks fantastic….despite the red light and the wrapping at the base.
When the curved steel catches the sunlight it really is a tower of light and I truly believe it is the beginning of something great for the North Inner City…. don’t let your criticism turn into cynicism 😉
Having spent the week back in the city i’ve gotten used to the spire. It may just be that it isn’t lighting yet but i’m not as impressed by it as i first was. Last night i was waiting for the No.13 bus and being O’C street i was trying to aviod that gaze of drunked 10yo’s so i took a loog long look at it and it just seemed… boring! When it is completley finished i may be more impressed. However i feel its symbolic stature is greater than its physical. Meaning it was amazing it was built at all. If only it was a little bit taller?
It’s turning into an anti-climax. Too much trouble. People only have so much patience. It’s hard to be proud of something when it’s caused so much grief.
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