22
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER2014
d
&
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DEMOLITION AWARDS
environmentally sensitive area, with the
primary focus of the sensitivitybeingdust
leaving site and entering theneighbouring
town. ThroughoutADS’sworks the site
remainedunder continuous surveillance for
fugitivedust leaving the site. Zerobreaches
were reported for theproject.
Dryer 2801 sat on topof 18m (59 ft)
concreteplinths andhadbeen redundant
formany years.Due to its height and
access restrictions, the corroded condition
andoverallweight of thedryer drumwas
andweighing each end togive amuchmore
accurate totalweight of 89 tonnes. This
allowed theuse of a local 500 tonneGrove
mobile crane to lift and lower thedryer
drum inone section. The lengthof thedryer
requiredADS tohireAustralia’s largest
spreader bar and the liftwent offwithout
incident.
Significant corrosionover timemeant that
the bins and conveyor systems had restricted
access. The corrosion impactedwalkways
andhandrails,making it unsafe toutilise
anyof the existing access routes. Allworks
was undertaken through theuseof elevated
workplatforms. ADSprogressively separated
bins and individuallydeveloped engineered
tripplans, according towhich strategic legs
were cut to enable eachbin tobe tripped and
processedonground. Conveyor gantrieswere
pre-cut and then attached to secured lifting
points and an appropriate sized crane, with
final cuts thenbeingmade and eachgantry
lifted and lowered to the ground and then
processed into scrap. Thiswas then loadedout
inheavy transport vehicles off site.
Motors andgearboxeswere carefully
salvaged at the clients request andwill be
re-usedwithin theoperational site.
Thedryer concreteplinths and thedryer
rollinggear had tobe removed -ADS’s 90
tonne Jewel front end equippedhigh reach
excavatorwith ahydraulicpulveriser/shear
processed theplinths toground levelwithout
incident - theheight and the closeproximity
of theplinths to the operatingplant required
the additional reachof thismachine to
ensure theprocess occurredunder controlled
demolition conditions.
Walkways leading to areaswhereplant
hadbeen removedhadhandrails installed
andopenings re-cladded andmade safe. The
operational sitewas only required to cease
operationalworkswhile the large crane lift
of thedryer occurred. At all other times
workswereundertakenwithin the company’s
exclusion zonewithin theoperating sitewith
no incidents.
At peak, aworkforceof 15was deployed
to carryout theworks, operating in a single
shift. In all theworkgenerated750 tonnes of
scrap steel and1,500of concrete, all ofwhich
was recycled.
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Pellet plant storage siloswere brought down and
then processed on the ground
unknown.
ADS’s engineers calculated theweight
of thedryer sincewithout accurateweights
the crane size requiredwouldneed tohave
50% safety capacity added. ADSovercame
this challengeby jackingup thedryer drum
