On October 20-22, 2022, in Paphos, Cyprus, a conference was held by the international organization CICIND, bringing together companies from around the world involved in the industrial construction industry (International Committee for Industrial Construction), of which NOVMAR is also a member. One of the lectures presented on this forum, which was given by Michael Angelides from AMTE in Greece, was entitled "Power plant explosion in Cyprus in 2011, Power Plant Vasilikos". In his speech, Michael Angelides recalled the tragedy in Vasilkos, Cyprus, where 11 years ago a powerful explosion in a nearby weapons and ammunition warehouse destroyed a local power plant.
It so happened that the tender for the reconstruction of this facility was won by the Krakow-based NOVMAR, and it was the company Wiesław Nowak that recreated what had been destroyed, bringing the object back to life.
This event was referred to in the next speech at the conference by the NOVMAR delegation. A representative of the company's management board Marta Nowak she recalled the history of that reconstruction, presented photos and showed a few minutes long, archival video of the completion of another construction in Cyprus, a high industrial chimney, in the Dekhelia facility.
My name is Marta Nowak, and I am accompanied by my sister, Anna Nowak and niece Veronica. It is a great honor for me to be here today at the CICIND conference. For many years, I have heard my father rate your organization and its people very highly.
Our dad – Weronika’s grandfather, Wiesław Nowak wanted to be here today to represent Novmar, however, he is undergoing an eye surgery and was not able to make it to this conference. So, today, we will be delivering a short presentation on his behalf, in his own words:
“Cyprus is a place that means a lot to me. It is an amazing country with kind people, beautiful views and delicious food. I have traveled to the Island hundreds of times in my life and every time I land there I love it even more. I have had many projects in Cyprus including Dekhelia power plant, Vasilikos and others. I am honored to be able to contribute to the development of Cyprus's infrastructure and I am delighted to watch the development of this wonderful island.
The construction of the Dekhelia Power Station was an extremely difficult and demanding endeavour, requiring advanced techniques and machinery to construct. At the time, no crane with a boom long enough to carry out the assembly of this chimney was available to us, so we had to use a so-called “climbing crane” with a lift capacity of 100 tons to get the job done. Even though this crane’s boom was much longer than a typical crane, we still had to extend the boom by 9 meters using a truss structure made in-house by our specialists.
We brought this modified climbing crane to a height of 65 meters, and began assembly of the chimney. After the housing of the chimney was installed, we inserted an inner chimney. The diameter of this 100-meter-tall chimney was 6 meters at its base, which decreased to 4 meters at 60 meters high. Work on the Dehkalia chimney required many kilometres of welding joints to be made, which proved to be a challenging task for us.
The construction of the Dekhelia Power Station was especially significant to me, because it was the first industrial chimney that Novmar built. The experience Novmar gained working on this plant was invaluable, and helped set a solid foundation for the construction of many chimneys to come.
The project at the Dekhelia power plant was very important to me, as we were building the first industrial chimney there, built by my NOVMAR. The experience gained there by the then young company was invaluable and helped to create a solid foundation for the construction of many future chimneys.
The Vasilikos Power Plant was another station that we worked on in Cyprus. After the horrifying explosion at the nearby naval base which destroyed a large portion of the Vasilikos plant, I was made an offer to refurbish the facility. I spent many late nights working out the details of repairing the wrecked power plant. The extent of the damage was unprecedented – resulting in not only a lot of physical damage, but claiming the lives of many personnel. The sight of the crosses on the hills was profound, one that will never leave my mind.
We ended up winning the tender because of our professionalism, knowledge, and experience of working on such projects
The Vasilikos contract was for roughly 160-thousand-man hours, and it ended up being a fairly demanding task. During peak times, we had as many as 100 specialists involved in the project. The resources required for this construction were immense – 25,000 sq. meters of insulation were used on the boilers and pipes. Even the reinforced concrete chimneys – which survived the initial blast – were required to be inspected and repaired. Despite the immensity of the job, we completed the entire renovation in an impressive 10 months.
Throughout my career, I have had many setbacks, challenges, and roadblocks. But in the flurry of competition and adversity, I’ve had an even greater number of successes, victories, and accomplishments. I am truly blessed to be in the position that I am to be manufacturing such crucial structures that provide a means for people’s livelihoods in places like Cyprus, and many more all over the world. "
Thank you for your attention.
October, 2022, Cyprus, Paphos
