Here at Flagmakers, no challenge is too big, small or precarious for that matter. The recent removal and installation of a flagpole at the Manchester Museum proved quite a challenge.
The job involved removing the heavy timber pole currently in place and mounting a new replacement pole the following week, all completed at around 20m above the street. The job involved various obstacles to consider, a key element been safety. The Museum is situated on a busy road surrounded by university buildings. This meant closing the road for up to 4 hours on the elected Sunday mornings to try and minimise disruption to the public.
Over this period the road went to a singular lane and measures had to taken to ensure pedestrians could safely pass, with access monitored via the usual pavement.
Work began removing the worn timber pole, which had to be managed in 3 stages:
- Stages 1 & 2 Involved securing the top 1/3 of the pole and using a handsaw to remove the section before lowering this to the ground.
- Stage 3 was similar but required the removal of mounting brackets and arms. The team’s skill enabled them to avoid hot works and the use of bowsaw, which could have posed further health and safety threats and saved valuable time.
The team returned the following week to complete the installation of a new more modern lightweight pole and brackets. These should be less invasive to the listed building. Again this demanded road closures and a 32m capacity cherry-picker to ensure the safety of staff and public alike.
The job was successfully completed without a hitch to the relief of everyone involved with the museum. It was great to be involved in a project for such a prestigious building and see the flagpole returned to its former glory.
