Whenever any building work or ground work of any kind is undertaken, there is always a chance that you will end up digging up something interesting.
But workers at Edinburgh Airport definitely got more than they bargained for recently when a shell casing appeared during work to build a tram line. Luckily everything ended happily as the bomb squad was immediately called to take care of the situation.
The discovery took place at around ten o’clock in the morning, but it was a while before everything was made safe again. There was minimal disruption however and the airport itself was able to continue with its normal routine of assisting passengers and making sure flights took off and landed as usual. Some internet reports indicated that the shell was safe anyway and would not have been able to explode. But whatever the truth of the matter is, the normal routine of setting off a controlled explosion was followed to the letter and the device was removed.
But how did the shell come to be there in the first place?
The answer lies in what the land was used for before Edinburgh Airport came to exist. The land was previously the home of a military station, and when the airport was created it was clearly built over the top of one or two stray devices. There is no reason to suspect that there are any more of them, but it does go to show that you never know where these things will turn up.
Every now and then there will be a news report about a World War II shell or unexploded bomb that has been found somewhere in the UK. This time it was something a bit more innocent, but it is good to see that the right actions were taken immediately. It was also stated that the tram link wasn’t affected by the discovery. Obviously some were concerned that it could delay the completion of the work, but it doesn’t seem to have been the case.
The incident occurred on Tuesday 13th October, and while it may have temporarily disrupted work on that day, it was back to business the following day. At present the trams are set to start running in late 2011, but there is some doubt over whether this date could be a little optimistic.
In any event it would seem that there have been ongoing issues with the link, and one day of disruption caused by an unexploded shell won’t have any real effect on what that final opening date will be.
So keep an eye on the news and we’ll report back when we hear any further developments about this tram link. One recent report did state that the creation of the actual trams is going well. It just might be a while longer before those trams actually have any tracks to run on.
But since no more shells have turned up to disrupt matters further, at least work has been able to continue once more.