Thousands of
people turned out in Dublin today to witness the demolition of the
first of the famous Ballymun Towers.
As the sound of U2’s Beautiful Day blasted out from portable
speakers, the 120 tonne Komatsu PC750-6SE High Reach
Demolition excavator, began knocking down balconies on the 15-storey
Pearse Tower, to great cheers.
Controlled Demolition Group
(CDG), brought in it's specialist
long-reach machinery from the UK. The PC750 is only one piece of the
demolition equipment present.
Ireland's McHale Plant Hire and Demolition from Dublin delivered
6.000 tonnes of concrete for the 6mtr ramp for the PC750. This
company also owns a Cat 325L with 17.5mtr. UHD boom.
Pearse Tower will be the first
of 8 blocks to be demolished this year, all by mechanical means.
It is expected to take four weeks for the first eleven storeys of
Pearse Tower to be demolished, the last four storeys will be
demolished with a conventional demolition excavator.
The two other tower blocks will be demolished in phase one of the
programme, along with the four-storey blocks and one eight-storey
block. Phase one:
Pearse Tower, McDonagh Tower,
Ceannt Tower, two 4-storey blocks at Sillogue,
two 4-storey blocks at Shangan, 8-storey block at Coultry.
The total development at Ballymun involves the demolition of 25
seven and eight-storey
blocks of flats, and replacing them with alternative housing for the
20,000.
Ballymun
Regeneration Limited, the state-owned company which is spearheading
the €2.5bn redevelopment project, said there would be 8500 tonnes
of rubble from Pearse Tower alone.
It is expected to take until at least 2012 until all the 20,000
people in Ballymun are relocated in new homes.
Special thanks to Rene
Schepers
from McHale Plant Hire and Demolition for the pictures.
click
to enlarge
Ireland
10-07-'04
Ballymun
demolition starts
Thousands of
people turned out in Dublin today to witness the demolition of the
first of the famous Ballymun Towers.
As the sound of U2’s Beautiful Day blasted out from portable
speakers, the 120 tonne Komatsu PC750-6SE High Reach
Demolition excavator, began knocking down balconies on the 15-storey
Pearse Tower, to great cheers.
Controlled Demolition Group
(CDG), brought in it's specialist
long-reach machinery from the UK. The PC750 is only one piece of the
demolition equipment present.
Ireland's McHale Plant Hire and Demolition from Dublin delivered
6.000 tonnes of concrete for the 6mtr ramp for the PC750. This
company also owns a Cat 325L with 17.5mtr. UHD boom.
Pearse Tower will be the first
of 8 blocks to be demolished this year, all by mechanical means.
It is expected to take four weeks for the first eleven storeys of
Pearse Tower to be demolished, the last four storeys will be
demolished with a conventional demolition excavator.
The two other tower blocks will be demolished in phase one of the
programme, along with the four-storey blocks and one eight-storey
block. Phase one:
Pearse Tower, McDonagh Tower,
Ceannt Tower, two 4-storey blocks at Sillogue,
two 4-storey blocks at Shangan, 8-storey block at Coultry.
The total development at Ballymun involves the demolition of 25
seven and eight-storey
blocks of flats, and replacing them with alternative housing for the
20,000.
Ballymun
Regeneration Limited, the state-owned company which is spearheading
the €2.5bn redevelopment project, said there would be 8500 tonnes
of rubble from Pearse Tower alone.
It is expected to take until at least 2012 until all the 20,000
people in Ballymun are relocated in new homes.
Special thanks to Rene
Schepers
from McHale Plant Hire and Demolition for the pictures.
click
to enlarge
Ireland
10-07-'04
Ballymun
demolition starts
Thousands of
people turned out in Dublin today to witness the demolition of the
first of the famous Ballymun Towers.
As the sound of U2’s Beautiful Day blasted out from portable
speakers, the 120 tonne Komatsu PC750-6SE High Reach
Demolition excavator, began knocking down balconies on the 15-storey
Pearse Tower, to great cheers.
Controlled Demolition Group
(CDG), brought in it's specialist
long-reach machinery from the UK. The PC750 is only one piece of the
demolition equipment present.
Ireland's McHale Plant Hire and Demolition from Dublin delivered
6.000 tonnes of concrete for the 6mtr ramp for the PC750. This
company also owns a Cat 325L with 17.5mtr. UHD boom.
Pearse Tower will be the first
of 8 blocks to be demolished this year, all by mechanical means.
It is expected to take four weeks for the first eleven storeys of
Pearse Tower to be demolished, the last four storeys will be
demolished with a conventional demolition excavator.
The two other tower blocks will be demolished in phase one of the
programme, along with the four-storey blocks and one eight-storey
block.
Phase one:
Pearse Tower, McDonagh Tower,
Ceannt Tower, two 4-storey blocks at Sillogue,
two 4-storey blocks at Shangan, 8-storey block at Coultry.
The total development at Ballymun involves the demolition of 25
seven and eight-storey
blocks of flats, and replacing them with alternative housing for the
20,000.
Ballymun
Regeneration Limited, the state-owned company which is spearheading
the €2.5bn redevelopment project, said there would be 8500 tonnes
of rubble from Pearse Tower alone.
It is expected to take until at least 2012 until all the 20,000
people in Ballymun are relocated in new homes.
Special thanks to Rene
Schepers
from McHale Plant Hire and Demolition for the pictures.
click
to enlarge
Netherlands
09-06-'04
First
385B UHD at work in Amsterdam
In April Beelen
Sloopwerken in the Netherlands put the first Cat 385B UHD to
work. It's job, to demolish the former Jan Zwammerdam Institute. The
demolition site is located in Amsterdam's very busy City-center. The
site is surrounded by many people, who are watching the giant
machine eating the building down piece by piece.
For the machine's operator it took a week to get to know the
machine's
capabilities. He had worked on a Cat 350L UHD. "This is something completely
different". "It's a machine with huge balls", he
said.
The machine has a dust-suspension kit and is fitted with a hydraulic
multi-system shear (Mantovanibenne) MBI
MS18R sold to the company by Dehaco
at the Bauma 2004.
The new Ultra high
demolition boom with a working height of 40mtr was chosen and the
machine now weighs 96 tons.
The proud owner said, "this giant dinosaur is the biggest and therefore
a key element for us to become the biggest contractor in the
Netherlands". Measures for safety, dust , noise and seismic activity
will increase further, so the best way to demolish
high structures is with a giant machine. Top down is another option
some of our colleagues use, but will take much more time (and
time is money).
Pictures see: Beelen
Sloopwerken photo album
Germany
10-03-'04
Cat
330C UHD toppled over
Demolition work has started in
Plymouth city center, as part of the £170m revamp of Drake Circus.
The existing shopping area was designed in the 1970s and the revamp
was meant to start in the 1980s, but never happened. It is hoped the
new shopping center, owned by P&O Developments, will be ready to
open its doors in the autumn of 2006.
The arrival of the bulldozers has signaled that Plymouth city center
is finally set to get its long-awaited makeover. The first shop to
be demolished as part of the redevelopment was the Mothercare store,
which has relocated to another part of the city center. Other stores
are due for demolition in the coming weeks. In their place will be a
state-of-the-art 60,000 square meter development featuring 45 shops,
cafes and restaurants.
The
crusher was believed to have fallen through a cavity
Berkhamsted-based demolition contractor
Davis & Samson who is responsible for the demolition faced a
problem in the first month when a 60 tonne rented Cat 330C UHD from
Gilpin Demolition toppled over.
The
demolition crusher, which is the height of a three story building,
collapsed in Old Town Street.
Several demolition workers had a
narrow escape when the machine fell on the former site of the city's
Mothercare store on Tuesday. The men had to unhook themselves from
scaffolding before they could flee from the falling machinery.
Luckily no-one was hurt at the
site.
Demolition worker Scott Brierley said: "We were unloading some
gas bottles when I realized something was not right. "You just
have a gut feeling when something is that close. "If we had not
been looking we would have been killed. There would have been no
escape."
Fellow worker Joby Trow said:
"We had our harnesses connected so we could not run.
"We did panic, but we disconnected our harnesses as quickly as
possible."
The base of the crushing machine
apparently broke through into an undetected void below ground.
A crane
from London was successful in righting the toppled
crusher
Damage inspection
After the machine collapsed,
several failed attempts were made on Tuesday evening to lift the
crusher upright using a larger rescue crane. Another crane from
London was successful in righting the toppled crusher on Wednesday
afternoon.
People who gathered to watch speculated about the cause of the
accident.
Peter Hitchcock, who watched the
crusher being rescued, said: "We often wonder what might be
under there.
"All this was flattened during the war. After the
reconstruction, it does raise the question as to how many other,
shall we say cellars, were covered over and records of them
lost."
Duncan Rudall of Newton Abbot company Gilpin Demolition, which owns
the 330 CAT crusher but had rented to the company carrying out the
work, said: "This is one of the only such machines of its type
in the country, worth about £250,000. "We
don't know how badly damaged it is yet. We've got to lift it up,
lower it to the ground and then we can investigate any damage to
it."
The Health and Safety Executive is
looking into the cause of the accident.
Davis and Samson now has it's Cat 345BL UHD and Komatsu PC400 HRD at
the jobsite.
See the further developments: webcam
and photos
One of the most successful demolition companies in East-Germany is Abbruch
and Recycling GmbH. The company was the first to order a
Case CX800 HRD excavator. This machine is capable of reaching as
high as 40mtr. and has a special demolition boom made by Kocurek.
The 3 part boom has 2 telescopic mid sections and can easily take
down a 13 floor building.
The company has taken down many High Rise buildings with this
machine. It takes down the highest floors and another Case High
Reach Demolition excavator, a Case 1488, is then brought in to take
down the lower parts. The CX800 can then move on to the next
building. Another CX800 HRD excavator has been delivered this month
to Italian contractor Despe
srl.
click
to enlarge
England
23-02-'04
Modified
Zaxis reaches high
Armac Demolition has used a Kocurek modified Hitachi Zaxis 500LC on
the final phase of a project at IMI Darlaston in the West Midlands. The
Birmingham-based company had been contracted to clear the former
steel works and the 50T Zaxis was required to demolish a five story
concrete frame office block.
The standard excavator –
supplied by the UK’s sole distributor of Hitachi Construction
Equipment HM Plant – was modified for both 14m and 26m reach. The
modification was carried out by Kockurek, specialists in the design
and manufacture of front-end equipment for excavators, and pioneers
in the use of high-reach machines in the UK.
A
unique Kocurek modular joint was fitted to the machine, consisting
of a basic hook system and a power-operated locking pin to secure
the high reach equipment to the boom foot. This enabled Armac to
switch between normal use and high-reach applications within 1 hour.
The modular joint allows the user to set the main boom in a straight
position for 14m reach or add an additional 3-piece boom for high
reach work. This enables it to achieve its maximum reach of 26m.
The complexity of the
project on the 30-acre site was complicated by the location of the
building, which bridged a canal. As the principal contractor to IMI,
Armac, in consultation with British Waterways and the local
authority, completely cleared the site (for redevelopment) ahead of
schedule.
Armac’s Contracting
Director Noel McLean explained the flexibility of the dual-purpose
machine: “The Hitachi Zaxis 500LC supplied by HM Plant has
provided Armac with great versatility. Not only were we able to use
it for normal site applications, but it also provided the accuracy
and control required so that we could dismantle the office block in
a safe and speedy manner. Furthermore, the fully integrated dust
suppression system eliminated the dust emissions common to a
building of this construction. This feature proved invaluable,
considering the proximity of the site to the busy M6 motorway.”
Source: HM
Plant Ltd.
Netherlands
09-01-'04
Large
demolition machines in The Hague
(Den Haag)
In Den Haag (Holland) demolition contractor Transverko is bringing
down a large shopping mall in the hart of the city. A though job
because the cities public transportation (Tram) is at 3mtr. distance
of the building. Transverko used it's own two HRD machines (JCB
JS330XD's with Kocurek
demolition Fronts) to bring down the first part of the building.
For the last and most difficult part Transverko rented the Hitachi
ZX850H from Abeko BV. This machine is fitted with a specially
designed boom. It's made by Boforce
Trading in the Netherlands and is normally used for under
water dredging, but can also be used for demolition work.
This is the first demolition job for the Hitachi, and it seems like
it's having fun, cracking down large pieces of concrete at 23mtr.
Abeko also has a bigger version; the Hitachi EX1100-3. It is fitted
with the same boom construction and capable of reaching 30mtr. See
HRD photo album for more
pictures.
A crane
from London was successful in righting the toppled
crusher
A
unique Kocurek modular joint was fitted to the machine, consisting
of a basic hook system and a power-operated locking pin to secure
the high reach equipment to the boom foot. This enabled Armac to
switch between normal use and high-reach applications within 1 hour.
The modular joint allows the user to set the main boom in a straight
position for 14m reach or add an additional 3-piece boom for high
reach work. This enables it to achieve its maximum reach of 26m.
