Sloyan Doyle Demolition

This project involved the demolition of a 14 storey former nurses accommodation block in very close proximity to the RLUH and within 14m of operational children’s crèche facility. Successful completion of the works required close liaison with the contract administrator, hospital and crèche management to agree noise, dust and hazard controls, hours of work and protection methods.

Main points:

• The structure was of in situ reinforced concrete construction, stabilised by perimeter walls, end staircases and a central lift core.
• It was set within a recently constructed car park with bituminous surfacing, which was to be protected and retained. We achieved this by placing a thick blanket of 6F5 fill material over the retained areas, which also served to provide a level, firm working platform on which long reach demolition machinery could operate safely.
• A number of precautionary measures were put in place to allow safe demolition:
  • The use of superlong reach equipment was limited to Saturdays and Sunday afternoons only.
  • Protective scaffold fans were erected over the adjacent crèche buildings.

The project included:

• Demolition of structure to ground level and clearance of all debris arising.
• Sealing off and removal of a redundant underground rc services corridor linking the building with the hospital.
• Excavation of all foundations, retaining walls etc to underside of basement level
• Filling and compaction of demolition area with 6F5 granular fill, placed in layers.
• Regrading of demolition area to falls and cross falls to blend with adjacent car park and provide additional parking.

Very careful control of dust was necessary and was achieved by means of high pressure ‘misting’ sprays from jetting machines and ‘dust boss’ plant to intercept and eliminate dust at source.

A recycling rate of over 98% was achieved on the project.