They’ve actually done it: shut the M1 and duffed in the twin cooling towers near Sheffield.
It’s maybe ten years since I found myself talking to the guy who had the contract to bring them down. They had a workable plan, but it involved closing the M1. Blowing them up without closing the motorway would have been nuts, since the towers were right next to the flyover near Meadowhall and Rotherham; closing the road wasn’t on the cards; stalemate.
Apparently, a decade on the towers were in poor enough condition that leaving them up was no longer an option, so the road was duly closed in the small hours of this morning, and down they came.
They were a fine landmark. Now we’ll only have the merrily-decorated cranes in the yard on the other side of the road to look at.
But I went past them only a few days ago.
I hadn’t realised how close they were to the railway line either, and I found myself admiring them from a slightly different angle to usual.
Had I known it was my last chance, I’d have taken it all in for a little longer.