Making Light Work of Portsmouth FC Project

Hughes and Salvidge started a historic project at Portsmouth
Football Club’s Fratton Park Stadium in June.

We successfully secured the contract to dismantle the four
floodlights that have towered over the home of Portsmouth FC and the Fratton
area of the city for decades.

The floodlights have a place in English football history as the
first to host a floodlit football match in the Football League – when Portsmouth
took on Newcastle United on 22^nd February, 1956.

However, the floodlights are no longer required as the club
has alternative methods of lighting around the stadium, so we were commissioned
to dismantle one floodlight for re-erection and re-use in one of the club’s car-parks
at the stadium, and to dismantle and remove the remaining three floodlights.

In early June, working from a mobile platform and with the
assistance of a crane and slinger, we meticulously dismantled in sections the
floodlight between the Fratton End and North Stand.

This will be re-erected by other contractors to be of use in
the car-park behind the North Stand and to maintain a piece of football history
at the club, and in the City’s skyline.

Lights will also be removed from the remaining three floodlights
for re-use and then we will return in late July to dismantle the remaining
three floodlight structures at the ground. They in turn will be removed from
site and arisings re-cycled.