Soon to be self suspending stairs
Building the Lido...Well given the shear size of the project and the sensitive complexities that will be carefully monitored by the English heritage and the council planners, this is certainly not going to be a rushed, quick development. I was up on site today and 23 palates of certain sized blocks were being carried onto site, roughly a days work for quite a few labourers! I thought that this project for the time being will only be going as fast as it can as this critical building stage cannot afford to be rushed, the whole build has to be spot on.
In the main reception the builders are piecing together some 3 story self gravitating stairs, which are quite cleaver. Basically the individual steps are shaped that they interlock with each other and are so heavy that once in position they will never move. Sounds great. Trouble is interlocking 3 flights of stairs with each step weighing almost half a tonne, as we've experienced this week, just a couple of mm out and the knock on magnified effect of the wayward 2 mm results in starting again. A frustratingly slow but ever so precise exercise.
So when will the Lido be finished you ask: Major destruction and clear out by the end of Oct 07. Major construction of reception, spa treatment rooms, mechanics, toilets and kitchen rooms, ground floor lounge and first floor restaurant shelled out by March 08. First power supply fixing April, cosmetics and second phase fixing May and June. I don't know exactly but given some hard work and a bit of luck we should be getting our feet wet by next summer, we think.
If you want to gaurentee your little pinkies getting wet, then you will be wanting to join one of the many memberships already available...