DAWSON-WAM, a marine engineering specialist, is removing and recycling the double skinned sheet steel piled cofferdam which has enabled the Canary Wharf complex to be constructed out of the disused waterways. The removal of the temporary installation is the final stage of this phase of development.

A crane mounted sheet pile installer, operated from a floating pontoon is used to extract the pile.

Most piles in this stretch of waterway have been extracted, leaving some which could not be lifted and must be cut off by divers working at the bed.

A worker guides the Giken Silent Piler machine onto a unit to be extracted.

Operating from floating work platforms, workers attach the pile extraction machine.

Following sand blasting and other remediation, the reclaimed steel piles are installed one the banks of the River Quaggy in Lewisham, South London, as part of the Environment Agency's major flood alleviation scheme for the area.