Constantine remove Monumental Sculptures from County Hall, London.
In late January this year, during the darkest, coldest part of winter, Constantine was engaged to remove three “Monumental” Salvador Dali Sculptures from public display. They had been in residence on the river walkway outside County Hall for many years, and these large Bronze sculptures were almost as famous as the London landmarks that surrounded them – the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.
A complex planning process included visits to the site at various times of day, detailed inspections of the sculptures, submissions of risk assessments and method statements, point load calculations and crane lifting plans. We even visited the vaults underneath the footpath to inspect the support beams that were holding everything up.
Due to our concern for the thousands of tourists and locals who daily use the narrow pathway that they were situated on, we undertook to work very early in the morning (we were usually on-site by 5am!), to lessen our contact with morning joggers and cyclists!
The Constantine sculpture team, and Technical manager Mark Hunt, worked in freezing temperatures for four mornings in a row. We erected safety barriers and boarded out the pavement each day so that our HIAB crane could drive directly up to each sculpture. Our qualified slingers attached slings and controlled the lift of each section of sculpture as it was dismantled. Other technicians, meanwhile, acted as banksmen.
The bronze sculptures, in their component parts, were taken back to our storage warehouse, to be prepared for the next leg of their journey.
