The i360’s glass donut arrives

The i360’s glass tower began to arrive on Brighton beach yesterday, to the excitement of engineering geeks throughout the city.

Two pieces began to be lifted into place, with two more due to go up today.

To celebrate the arrival, the i360 released these facts and figures about the pod:

· There are 24 segments, made up of a floor section and a top section, each of them representing 15 degrees of the 360 degree circle

· They are exactly equal sized, but the east and west segments have doors in them

· Under the floor there is different equipment in each, much of it electrical and service equipment

· The 24 floor segments weigh 1.8 tons each

· The 24 top segments weigh around 1 ton each

· Approx 20-30 lorry loads will bring them in from France through the Channel Tunnel

· The crane will lift them from 2 locations – south east then south west, to reach all sides of the circle

· It will pick them up off the lorry and put them straight onto the chassis – up one storey to road level where the chassis is sitting at the upper esplanade

· If there is a delay, the pieces are wrapped in a temporary frame with 4 wheels, in case they need to come off the lorries (this happened already with the first ones); they are shrink wrapped and this is unpeeled as they are lifted and put onto the chassis

· There are some temporary steel hangers to put the pieces into position on the chassis – all 24 upper and lower pieces will be put into place on the hangers and then adjusted with a screw thread to get them exactly level and then they will be permanently attached