Wednesday 4 June 2008

Heat forces city dome's closure

Thanks to chillzero for pointing out this wonderful piece of news:

The dome on top of Belfast's landmark Victoria Square complex was forced to close because it became too hot.

Management at the city centre shopping development decided to shut the tourist attraction on Saturday for health and safety reasons.

The public viewing gallery which crowns the complex was closed for several hours as the temperature rose to an uncomfortable 30 degrees.

more:

Victoria Square manager Hugh Black said: "The decision was taken for the health and safety reasons for the both customers and staff.

He said the dome had safety measures in place to stop it becoming too hot.

"The design of the dome includes a system which automatically opens windows in the dome once the temperature reaches 19 degrees, plus a solar shade which follows the track of the sun in order to prevent the intense heat of the sun from directly reflecting into the dome.

"However, due to the higher than usual temperatures on Saturday, these were not enough to reduce the humidity in this particular area."
The dome has safety measures in place to stop it becoming too hot
Victoria Square said it was currently looking into additional methods to help control the temperature of the public area.

How about a sprinkler system and that way the poor trees would get some water.