Sloyan Doyle Demolition

This project comprised the demolition of two blocks of 14 storey flats from a group of 3 on a corner site at Larkhill, Blackburn. The third block was being renovated for use as sheltered housing for the elderly, completed during our contract.

The blocks were of insitu reinforced concrete construction, stabilised by means of an insitu RC stair and lift core, with masonry external cladding.

Due to the proximity of the adjacent roads, we decided to use a mixture of level by level and long reach methods to demolish the structures. The whole of each block was to be reduced to 12 storeys using level by level methods, with the areas closest to the roads being reduced to eight storeys, before completing demolition using superlong reach plant:

• Following structural assessment, we propped the three topmost floors of the building to allow the use of small plant (mini excavators and skid steer loaders) to reduce the buildings floor by floor.
• We used our own system of cantilever beams projecting from the buildings immediately below the demolition level, to support a perimeter access scaffold around the floors to be reduced. This saved time and cost and also allowed free access around the block at ground level.
• The building lift shafts were stripped out to be used as debris chutes for the transfer of demolition rubble to ground.

Arisings from the works werre recycled by crushing / screening to DOT type 1 standard and re-used on nearby construction projects.