Spider-Men

Miguel looks up to see how his teammates carry out their work more than 20 meters high, brushing against the sky. He is focused, analyzing every move of those "Spider-Men" who climb from the concrete base of the electrical tower to the top, as if they were casually climbing the stairs of a 7 story building.

Next to him, on solid ground, Juande, Óscar, Antonio, Juanfe, José Antonio, Miguel Ángel... each technician has a role, everything is coordinated, like an invisible choreography that enables the execution of tasks that require months of planning. "Everything you see here has a prior analysis that's essential for its success," explains Miguel, "safety is the top priority," because the colleagues must perform precise maneuvers at great heights, and that requires everything to be prepared in advance so that they 'only' have to climb and hook the crane or unhook the wiring."

We are in Seville, in an urban environment, surrounded by buildings, cars, roundabouts, parks, and sports centers. Until recently, 21 high-voltage electrical towers stood here, which have been dismantled by Miguel's team. This is the final phase of a monumental project, in which the wiring was first placed underground to eliminate the overhead lines that ran through the towers.

"Once we had the new wiring laid, the substation ready to provide more power, and everything operational, we began dismantling the supports, the towers," says Miguel. But first, the wiring had to be removed. "It's not as easy as it might seem; the wiring is tensioned, and if you remove a part like that, everything falls down in a chain reaction," he laughs, gesturing as if showing a chain collapse.

Over the 21 supports ran more than 5 kilometers of wiring. To maintain the tension, the technicians had to use counterweights, heavy-duty cranes, close off traffic, and work with millimeter precision. Each meter of cable was collected for later revaluation. "We've managed to ensure that everything that was dismantled generates no waste, some parts were recycled, others reused, creating a circular economy and giving a second life to many elements," explains Miguel.

After the wiring came the turn of the towers. "First, the bases anchored to the ground were weakened, and then, using a crane, they were lowered to the ground." Said with such ease, it sounds almost simple, but when you get close to each tower and see the dimensions of over 20 meters in height and nearly 10 tons of weight, what seemed light from afar turns into an impressive mass.

But what seems difficult appears easy when the last "Spider-Man" climbs down from the tower.