THE demolition of Tilbury Power Station will reach another milestone next week.

The second of the station’s sites will undergo a planned controlled explosive demolition on Thursday, April 27.

Following the station’s closure in 2013, demolition contractors Brown and Mason began work in January 2016 and said that plans are progressing well,

It comes a month after two vast coal unloaders which sat on the jetty for more than 25 years were shipped off to the Netherlands.

Better known as the ‘Kones’, after the manufacturer’s name, the two coal unloaders were used to unload coal from the ships that transported coal to the station.

They have since been sold for scrap.

In its heyday, the station generated enough electricity to meet the electrical requirements of 1.4 million people.

The controlled demolition will bring down half of the Turbine Hall, the structure measuring 25 metres high, 126 metres long and 27 metres wide.

Contractors say that although the explosion and collapse may be heard off site, any noise will be “over very quickly” and that any dust generated will be controlled on site and road sweepers will be available for local roads.

The other main structures such as the chimneys, boiler house, turbine hall and bunker house are scheduled for explosive demolition later this year. Further details on these milestones will be provided nearer the time. The complete demolition of the site is expected towards the end of 2018.