Five silver-grey cylinders are set to become a spectacular Sussex landmark.

The five carbon steel sections are due to be lifted off the ship that brought them to Shoreham Harbour over the weekend.

And by the end of the month the 20-tonne segments will be slotted together to form the new Shoreham power station chimney.

At 100 metres, it will be just seven metres shorter than the now demolished chimneys of the old power station, which stood on the same site and could be seen from the Isle of Wight.

It will stand on two 60-tonne base blocks which have been on site for several weeks.

The British-made sections for the stack were built in Newcastle and brought down to Shoreham by the cargo vessel Marja.

The 400-megawatt gas-fired power station is being built at a cost of £200 million by South Coast Power.

It is expected to supply electricity to around 400,000 homes when it goes on-line in winter 2000.

A South Coast Power spokeswoman said: "Once fully commissioned, the chimney will produce an almost invisible heat haze rather than the smoke associated with older, coal-fired power stations."

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