Moving house can be stressful, but transporting an entire house in one piece sounds almost impossible. This is the kind of daunting challenge facing teams of structural movers in the third series of Monster Moves, which features some of the most daring relocation projects ever attempted. This week, an iconic lighthouse must be shifted before it crumbles into the Atlantic Ocean. And in Sweden, an entire mining town needs to be relocated or it will be swallowed up by a mammoth sinkhole.

This season of Monster Moves follows teams of expert movers as they haul supersize structures on road, rail, sea and air journeys across Britain, America, Canada, South Africa, Egypt, Sweden and America. This year, the structures are bigger, the routes are longer and riskier –and the stakes for the haulers and owners are much higher. This week’s episode shows how Mother Nature can wreak havoc on man-made structures and force movers to race against time.

On America’s east coast, the stormy conditions that regularly batter Nantucket Island have put the towering Sankaty Head Lighthouse at risk of plunging down a crumbling cliff. Having been a beacon to Massachusetts seamen for over 150 years, the lighthouse is still in use today. The locals carry great affection for Sankaty, one woman calling it a “touchstone”. With one more bad storm having the potential to spell the end for the tower, the township band together and raise $4 million to fund the relocation project.

Standing tall at 90 feet and weighing in at 500 tons, the lighthouse proves to be a massive job for Expert House Movers. Safe ground lies 400 feet away, and the movers identify three possible options to get from A to B. Using computer-generated images, the film demonstrates in detail how each method will work. But with hurricane season brewing, the team will need to get things rolling quickly.

Meanwhile, the colossal task of moving an entire town in Sweden lies in the hands of 26-year-old house-mover Andreas Martensson.

Malmberget, in the Arctic Circle, was founded on is iron ore mines in the late 19th century. Now the
very industry that the town was built on threatens to consume it for good. In 1985, one of the several
mine shafts collapsed, causing a sink hole to develop on the outskirts of town. Since then, the hole has been a growing concern for the town’s residents. Mining must continue for the sake of Malmberget’s prosperity, so the people are left with no choice but to uproot the 462 homes to more stable foundations five miles away.

With the Arctic winter looming, the movers must contend with short daylight hours and plummeting temperatures to get the job done, street by street. Before they can even make a start, an unexpected development threatens to hamper the project. But nothing is too difficult for Martensson, and on the day of the first move, the locals turn out in droves to witness the surreal sight of a two-ton house inching along at a snail’s pace down the main street.

Saturday 8 – Friday 14 March on Five