Hi everyone!
This is my first report and I'm starting with this realy nice power plant, abandoned for more than two decades.
Let's start with a bit of history:
This power plant used to provide energy to large steelworks, so let's start with the history of this site. In the 1850's, a first factory was founded in order to elaborate iron. The company continued to grow and in the 1890's, it employed 1,200 workers. In the 1910's, the company had two blast furnaces, two batteries of coke ovens, a steel mill, rolling mills, forges, a steel foundry with workshops, etc... Demolished during the First World War, the factory was rebuilt and was completely restarted in 1924. From 1930 to 1940, the increase in production was actively pushed by the construction of an ore agglomeration, two new blast furnaces and the development of the power plant. Modernizations and conversions meant that from 1947 to the end of the century the monthly steel production increased from 30 to 120,000 tons. Still prosperous in the 1970s, the Factories were to experience a crisis and job cuts (there were 3,500 workers around 1985, only 1,200 in 2002). Alliances and takeovers followed one another and an end is definitively put to the activity of the blast furnaces in the 1990's, it is probably during this period that the power station, which was also the blowers house, was disused. They will be destroyed soon after.
The blast furnaces in 2002, just before they were demolished.
Aerial view of Usines Boël at the end of the 1990s.
Pictures:
So here we are, in the boiler house, more than 20 years after the shutdown of the plant. It is an amazing place with a lot of decay going on but not any vandalism. Demolition is currently going on in the steelworks and sadly there are chances that this unique building get demolished too in the next years.The power plant is in two separated buildings, the boiler house and the turbine hall.
The roof partialy collapsed and allowed plants and moss to grow on the ground, which give an unique atmosphere.
Rusty and overgrown, definitely my favorite kind of place
Door between two boilers
Behind the boilers
Boiler detail
Pressure Indicator on one of the boilers
Now let's go to the semi-active turbine hall. There are sadly not any turbines left, but some pumps and machinery are still running. I was hurrying for fear of coming face to face with a worker, and I forgot to take a global picture of the turbine hall, but there was not much to see anyway.
Control panel
Control panel
Two generations of control panels
Pumps control room
The pumps
Old corridor
That's all for me, I hope you liked this report!
This is my first report and I'm starting with this realy nice power plant, abandoned for more than two decades.
Let's start with a bit of history:
This power plant used to provide energy to large steelworks, so let's start with the history of this site. In the 1850's, a first factory was founded in order to elaborate iron. The company continued to grow and in the 1890's, it employed 1,200 workers. In the 1910's, the company had two blast furnaces, two batteries of coke ovens, a steel mill, rolling mills, forges, a steel foundry with workshops, etc... Demolished during the First World War, the factory was rebuilt and was completely restarted in 1924. From 1930 to 1940, the increase in production was actively pushed by the construction of an ore agglomeration, two new blast furnaces and the development of the power plant. Modernizations and conversions meant that from 1947 to the end of the century the monthly steel production increased from 30 to 120,000 tons. Still prosperous in the 1970s, the Factories were to experience a crisis and job cuts (there were 3,500 workers around 1985, only 1,200 in 2002). Alliances and takeovers followed one another and an end is definitively put to the activity of the blast furnaces in the 1990's, it is probably during this period that the power station, which was also the blowers house, was disused. They will be destroyed soon after.
The blast furnaces in 2002, just before they were demolished.
Aerial view of Usines Boël at the end of the 1990s.
Pictures:
So here we are, in the boiler house, more than 20 years after the shutdown of the plant. It is an amazing place with a lot of decay going on but not any vandalism. Demolition is currently going on in the steelworks and sadly there are chances that this unique building get demolished too in the next years.The power plant is in two separated buildings, the boiler house and the turbine hall.
The roof partialy collapsed and allowed plants and moss to grow on the ground, which give an unique atmosphere.
Rusty and overgrown, definitely my favorite kind of place
Door between two boilers
Behind the boilers
Boiler detail
Pressure Indicator on one of the boilers
Now let's go to the semi-active turbine hall. There are sadly not any turbines left, but some pumps and machinery are still running. I was hurrying for fear of coming face to face with a worker, and I forgot to take a global picture of the turbine hall, but there was not much to see anyway.
Control panel
Control panel
Two generations of control panels
Pumps control room
The pumps
Old corridor
That's all for me, I hope you liked this report!
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