SN has sent us some history of the London Snow World site. What with little activity over the last three months we thought we'd post something up.

The Beckton Alp is an old slag heap from John Beck's Gas Works. As such, it has two dangers - noxious tars, oils and other byproducts of the Gas works and it has no structure, so it would have been liable to collapse, as per Aberfan.

The capping seals the nasties in and then covers them with lots of soil. Trees etc give structure.

In the early 1990's, when Winsor Park Estate was being built, various noxious items were found in dust from the Gasworks site including cyanide compounds in the dust that settled on the DLR trains.

The Alp itself was a bone of contention between LDDC and LBN when it came to de-designating the LDDC and handing paths and parks back to LBN. The LBN insisted that the de-designation package should include something to help maintain the high maintenance Docklands facilities, eg the Alp and the paths that are liable to move and crack and need frequent repairing.

Fortunately, the London Health & Safety Exective say the site is safe and the earthworks have not penetrated the capping.

Other major local facilities are taking far longer than envisaged namely:

Royal Albert Dock Waterski Tow
Victoria Dock Watersports Centre
Even their wonderful 2,000 meter rowing course that had the Albert Dock extended and new bridge built to North Woolwich is too short - apparently the minimum required length got changed recently.
Even ExCel is having problems getting from the set up stage to the fully operational level due to the time to build up business.

No doubt all these things and SnowDome will happen as and when all the housing, business and hotel developments get established over the next ten years but the short and medium term economic climate and other factors are affecting everything.

As usual everything takes much longer than planned. What is it about
project management that is so over-ambitious?

At least the A13 roadworks are going surprisingly well so we'll all be able to get there when it does open.

---