Cleaning The World's Tallest Sculpture Is An Expensive Process

Over the June bank holiday it cost the taxpayers of Ireland 40 thousand Euros to clean the €5m Spire Of Light.

At the time of its erection on O'Connell Street in 2003 the Spire Of Light was described as "self-cleaning" but the city council conceded that its maintenance cost €205,000 last year and will increase to at least €218,000 this year. However, according to a council spokesman it is "illogical" to believe the stainless steel tourist attraction would clean itself.

A 120-metre tall crane was brought in on Saturday and Sunday so that general maintenance and cleaning could be carried out. In order to save money the installation of a new aviation light and 2,000 white luxeon LEDs was also undertaken by German firm Hochtief Facility Management.

====THE SPIRE=======
Designed by Ian Ritchie Architects, the Spire is an elongated cone of diameter 3m (10 ft) at the base, narrowing to 15cm (6 in) at the top. The world's tallest sculpture, it was originally intended that the Spire be completed by 2000 in honour of the new millennium, but construction was delayed because of difficulty in obtaining planning permission and environmental regulations. It is constructed from eight hollow tubes of stainless steel and features a tuned mass damper to counteract sway.