Eleanor Harris: An Eye On British Airways i360

Cutting edge design and engineering take Brighton’s visitor appeal to new heights

The tower is at full height – 162 metres high. It seems incredibly to believe that it took the team just 10 weeks to complete the construction, and it is really exciting to have reached this important milestone so quickly.
It has been a flawless precision operation, which has gone without a hitch, and the engineering team have done a fantastic job. It has been fascinating to watch the construction take place – especially when the tower has been ‘levitating’ during the jacking operation, attracting crowds on Brighton beach. My office is based in a Portakabin on the construction site so we have literally watched the tower go up out of our window.
Hollandia has already begun dismantling the square jacking tower, which was used to elevate the tower to add the cans into the bottom of the tower. As each piece of the jacking tower comes down, the slim tower beneath is revealed. The i360 is incredibly slender – in fact the slimmest tall tower ever built anywhere in the world with a height: width aspect ratio of 40:1.

The final bolts were inserted by two apprentices working on the construction site at a small ceremony attended by the construction team, West Pier Trust and Brighton & Hove City Council, who held a minute’s silence to honour the families affected by the Shoreham Air Show tragedy.
So what are the next stages of construction? Our focus is going to shift from the sky to the ground, as Mackley has begun building the concrete frame for the beach building. We will also start rebuilding the arches at the back of our building, which will eventually become ‘back of house’ areas inside our building for storage and our staff facilities.

Meanwhile, the glass pod manufacture is well underway by Poma in France and is due to arrive in Brighton via the Channel Tunnel in October. In the UK, the West Pier toll booths are in the process of being restored and replicated and the pair will arrive on site next spring.
Next year will also see the addition of the tower lighting scheme, which should be stunning and create a real beacon for the city. We will be able to change the lighting for special events – I’m told even rainbow coloured for Pride, which will be amazing!
Twitter: @TheBrightoni360 @Eleanor_Harris, Facebook: Brighton-i360, Pinterest: Brightoni360, www.brightoni360.co.uk