Photographs © John H. Luxton 2007

After 16 weeks of pounding away at the sunken George's Landing Stage work was still continuing on Saturday July 07. The work was completed soon after these photographs were taken and the Smit "spudjack" work barge taken away.

Work boat JESSICA S of Coastal Launches loads some of the last remaining sections of the former George's Stage passenger bridge onto her deck on May 31, 2007

By May 24, the cutting up of the footbridge was well under way. The orange pump is being supported by the crane mounted on HAVEN SEAWAY, just out of view to the right. Meanwhile work to break up the south end of the sunken stage continues. Material from the stage being offloaded at tW Canada scrap berth.

By Saturday May 12, 2007 the HAVEN SEAWAY had moved down river beyond the location of the southern most landing stage boom which has been removed. The large chisel, poised for further attacks on the sunken landward side of George's Stage. The passenger bridge appears to be being cut up in situ with quite a lot of the structure having now been cut away.

The Smit barge remained in position being serviced by work boat JESSICA S. Carmet's barge VEGA is still collecting remains of the stage whilst West Coast Marine's THORA was seen alongside during the afternoon.

Work continued on the morning of April21 (left) and appears to have reached the southern section of the sunken stage. By the evening of the same day Haven Port's HAVEN SEAWAY jack up platform had been positioned near to the landing stage booms and bridge.

On Saturday March 31 work on removing the remains of the sunken George's Stage appeared to be proceeding rather slowly. The submerged structure continues to be pounded continuously by a massive chisel dropped from a crane. Broken sections of the stage are now being recovered and are being lifted over and placed in skips carried by the Carmet Towing Company's barge VEGA which is moored alongside the Smit "spud-jack" 

The broken chunks of reinforced concrete appear to be filling up the skips quite quickly as the reinforcement rods take up a lot of space. How long it will take to clear the debris and install the Ravestein SKYLINE BARGE 15 as the temporary stage remains to be seen. The Smit spud jack does not appear to to have moved since the previous weekend.

A second attempt at the removal of the sunken remains of the George's (Mersey Ferries) Landing Stage finally got underway during the third week in March. Fifty five weeks after the structure originally sank. There had been rumours that explosives could be used - but the presence of the Queensway Road Tunnel probably mitigated against that proposal.

A Smit "spudjack" barge is in use loaded with a demolition crane armed with a substantial "chisel" that is being dropped onto the sunken stage. After watching proceedings for several minutes one had the impression there were more his than misses. How long this work will take remains to be seen. Local work boat JESSICA S is seen in attendance.