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21st December 2006
Page 70
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Page 70, 21st December 2006 — LONDON
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

It's Monday 4 December and we're up at 4am. By 5.30am we're crossing Westminster Bridge to link up with Petersen and Rumble (the two have had time to go home, catch some sleep, and get back on the road since we last saw them).

Big Ben looms ahead of us, silhouetted against the moonlight. We bear north, cross the Mall, and park up on Trafalgar Square. The ERF is parked up on Whitehall with its precious load.

Just as in Oslo and at Immingham, a group has formed to deal with the tree. In this case there are three contingents. First is the Beck & Pollitzer party: Rumble and Peterson, a small army of engineers and crane drivers, project manager Fred Stanley and transport manager Dean Sears. Then there's a team, headed by consultant Tim Maynard from EC Harris, the firm overseeing the entire project. Last are electricians from Sykes & Son, the building contractor responsible for lighting up the tree.

"It's not a particularly complicated job," says Stanley, "but it goes out to a competi tive tender. Were in our second year of the three-year contract. It's prestigious work...

By now, moonlight is giving way to daylight. There is a deep hole in Trafalgar Square especially to accommodate the tree, but lifting cannot safely begin until it's fully light.

At 7.45am a harness is attached to the tree. Darren Watts from Beck & Pollitzer uses a 25-tonne Mitsubishi mobile crane to raise it. Paul Burnside, also from B&P, steers the tree with the aid of a smaller crane.

Preparation takes a long time. At 9am the giant is vertically suspended in all its glory. On cue, the bells of StMartin-in-the-Fields ring out.

The plan is to slot the tree into a metal bracket which will then be lowered into the hole. But to everyone's surprise the tree does not f it. Undaunted, B&P riggers Don Wall and Colin Brockwell set abut it with a hammer and chisel.

It is a surreal sight. Commuters look on at the hanging tree. Meanwhile, the regular pigeon-scaring falconer patrols the square with Flame, a Harris Hawk, One maverick bird insists on sitting on Nelson's hat but,

aside from that, the hawk has done its work.

At 10am, the tree is still suspended. At 10.30am, the sling is removed and, some 96 hours after it was felled, the tree is standing proud in its new home.

Mark Barber and the other Sykes & Son electricians, are ready to start decorating the tree and CM is invIed to take the star to the top of the tree. We're a tad nervous riding the cherry picker to the top of the 21m tree, bi it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The pl is to place the star atop it, but that means leaning from the picker, and it's a long dro the square below. We ask to be brought down, content to have reached the top. "You'll get a BluePeterbadgeforthat,"jo a rigger. "Blue Peter badge? More like the Victoria Cross," we reply.


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