Bolanle Akanji
Moderator
The departures concourse of the £4.3 billion terminal, which was designed by British architect, Lord Richard Rogers is not so attractive now that 60% of the bulb have blown and there is no safe and easy way to change them.
The problem is due to an oversight in the design. This was revealed by an investigative site, Exaro.
Fear not however, the problem is being addressed. Vicki O'Brien, head of Heathrow customer service at British Airways, sent an e-mail to staff to say that all the light bulbs are finally to be changed... by high-wire artists.
The change will take up to four months and will cost several million pounds (they aren't your average bulbs, that's for sure).
The goal is to replace the blown bulbs with LEDs which are expected to last a minimum of 5 years.
Excerpts from the mail sent to workers:
'Since T5 was opened in March '08, there have always been challenges for Heathrow with replacing blown light bulbs.
'Various things have been investigated in the past five years (eg gondolas and high-level cherry pickers), but for a number of reasons, none of these was practical or safe.
'The good news is that Heathrow has now
identified a safe and robust way to replace all of the light bulbs, and this is high-level rope work carried out by a specialist company.'
The problem is due to an oversight in the design. This was revealed by an investigative site, Exaro.
Fear not however, the problem is being addressed. Vicki O'Brien, head of Heathrow customer service at British Airways, sent an e-mail to staff to say that all the light bulbs are finally to be changed... by high-wire artists.
The change will take up to four months and will cost several million pounds (they aren't your average bulbs, that's for sure).
The goal is to replace the blown bulbs with LEDs which are expected to last a minimum of 5 years.
Excerpts from the mail sent to workers:
'Since T5 was opened in March '08, there have always been challenges for Heathrow with replacing blown light bulbs.
'Various things have been investigated in the past five years (eg gondolas and high-level cherry pickers), but for a number of reasons, none of these was practical or safe.
'The good news is that Heathrow has now
identified a safe and robust way to replace all of the light bulbs, and this is high-level rope work carried out by a specialist company.'
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