On February 18 2022 planning permission was granted for the building of the new permanent replacement mast at Bilsdale. The new mast will be more than 300 metres tall, and will involve teams of more than 100 workers.
The construction of a new Bilsdale Mast in North Yorkshire, which will become one of the UK’s tallest structures and is only a few metres smaller than The Shard in London, is a significant engineering challenge. The scale and complexity of the project in a remote and environmentally-sensitive location, using a bespoke design, along with the impact of the weather at the moor top site, mean the finish date for the project has to be an estimate.
A construction project of this scale and complexity might usually take 18-24 months, but Arqiva is working hard with others – for example, steel suppliers in the UK – to reduce that timescale in a safe and effective manner. It is hoped the new Bilsdale Mast will be in place by early autumn 2022 and will become operational between then and spring 2023.