With the right winds, spire may be all done today

Windy conditions have further delayed work on the Dublin Spire, which is not expected to be completed until today at the earliest.

A "window of calm" in the weather allowed the third section be put in place early yesterday, bringing the standing structure to a height of 53 metres, and it was hoped that the fourth section would be added early this morning.

But with the cranes unable to operate in yesterday's winds, the project engineer said last night that it could take up to 12 hours, even in ideal conditions, to lift and secure the remainder of the 120-metre spire.

"Having said that, if we get the right winds, we'll be really going for it. We've been waiting long enough already," Mr Michael O'Neill said.

The project team was being mobilised on site at 9 p.m. last night in the expectation of calm conditions around midnight. But Mr O'Neill said that however calm it was at ground level, it would always be less so at an altitude of 120 metres.

A device in the top of the 140-metre-high crane is measuring local wind speed and direction and "mild winds from the south-west" are the nearest to ideal the engineers can expect.

The 1,000-tonne crane spent yesterday holding a "lifting beam" on top of the standing structure to prevent it swaying. When complete, the spire will be stabilised by a two-tonne steel "damper", which will be installed with the fifth and penultimate section.

The third section was bolted in place yesterday by a team using steps and platforms inside the structure, but until the damper is installed the spire is vulnerable to high winds.

Mr O'Neill said that putting the remaining sections up in one extended operation was the most stable way to complete the job.

At 38 metres, the sixth and final section - actually three sections fixed together - will be easily the longest. But, with the spire tapering to a diameter of 10cm at the top, the length is the minimum necessary to allow room for a man to secure it to the rest of the structure from within.

All the sections are now on site, ready for completion. The structure is already attracting large numbers of onlookers.

On-site construction has been under way since December 18th.When complete, the 120-tonne structure will be more than twice as high as Liberty Hall.