Demolition In UAE! pages: 38-40 - Pdworld.com

Atlas Copco assists
with bridge demolition
removed. A total of 25,000m 3 of reinforced
concrete had to be removed.
The contractor Ruppert GmbH & Co. KG
Erdbau + Abbruch from Frickenhausen has used
eight Atlas Copco medium to heavy hydraulic
breakers weighing between 1.2t and 7t for
the job. “With these attachments we were able
to cope with the 25,000m 3 ,” says company
manager Florian Ruppert. “On the other side
of the bridge a railway track intersects with the
old bridge and this part of the bridge could not
be blown up. For this particular demolition job
we purchased the Atlas Copco CombiCutters
CC 2500 U and CC 3300 U. We attached
them to Liebherr 954 and 974 long reach
excavators and demolished this bridge section
from below.” The rubble will be a recycled in
their own recycling plants and the B 13 was
cleared for reopening to traffic much earlier
than scheduled.
www.atlascopco.com
The A3 motorway
passes from the Dutch/German
border through the western part of the Ruhr,
Cologne, Rhine-Main and Bavaria down to the
Austrian border at Stuben. It is one of the busiest
motorways in Germany. With the growing volume
of traffic, widening of the motorway to six lanes
was vital. Conversion work is being carried out at a
number of places
including the demolition of a
bridge near Randersacker. The old bridge, built
in 1964, was blown up and replaced with a much
wider structure just 3m away.
After the 540m long bridge was blown up,
the B13 road underneath was re-opened to traffic
within 36 hours of the demolition. This was possible
after about 1,500m 3 of reinforced concrete
was removed and crushed and another 800m 3
of material protecting the road surface was also
Syd Bishop goes to university
High-performance dust suppression equipment
has helped one of the UK’s leading demolition firms
remove 20 buildings from the former University
of East London campus without a single dust
complaint, despite the extremely brittle, old concrete
and close proximity to occupied structures.
Although the conditions could have presented a
nuisance for workers or nearby residents, crews
from demolition contractor Syd Bishop and Sons
were able to successfully manage surface dust and
airborne particles with a powerful misting system
from the US company Dust Control Technology.
The demolition effort took a year to complete,
making way for more than 1,000 new homes
on the site.
A delicate demolition work
The project, described as delicate demolition
work by the company, required that some of
the buildings be surgically separated, with one
portion being removed and the other remaining
for re-use or renovation. “We literally had to cut
away adjoining structures, demolishing some parts
and leaving others intact,” said Syd Bishop director
Tom Bishop.
In addition to the size of the job, part of
Bishop’s challenge was containing the sizable
volume of dust generated by the firm’s activities.
28 PDi • Is s u e 3 - 2009 • Au g - Se p t
“The DustBoss system not only minimized dust
on the job, but it helped us through the planning
process,” says Tom Bishop. The concrete was so
fragile that cab windows on some of the company’s
equipment had to be protected with screens to
prevent breakage from flying chips.
Bishop’s crews were also faced with some
major utility-related challenges. “There were three
electrical sub-stations on the site, one of which
was still in use,” adds Bishop. “The site was also
criss-crossed with gas lines, and no one seemed
quite sure of their exact location. Some of the gas
mains never had meters, and there was no easy
way to cut them off. In the end, they had to be
sealed from outside the perimeter of the site. The
process took months to complete.”
Extensive fleet
of demolition equipment
Covering an area of about nearly 25 acres, demolition
of the former University of East London started
with soft strip and asbestos removal programmes
at the beginning of the year. The company then
called on its extensive fleet of demolition excavators,
including a Hitachi ZX600 equipped with
a 36m boom and a ZX400 fitted with a 24m
boom. Both units were armed with Verachtert
VT pulverizers.
A Hitachi ZX470 equipped with a 4m 3 bucket
was used to dig out foundations, and the reinforced
concrete was then broken down by a ZX280 with a
Komac hammer and processed by an Extec C-12
crusher. All of the debris was retained on site for
processing and potential re-use.
“The recycled material was reduced to 25
mm and stocked for piling mats and sub-base for
the new development,” added Bishop. Any waste
that did not have a use on site was transported to
the company’s main recycling facilities at Longfield,
where it was separated by picking stations, water
baths and various automated techniques to minimize
the amount of waste going to landfill.
www.dustboss.com
www.sydbishop.co.uk