Alexandra Park - Epsom Balconies

The Demolition of Alexandra Parks Epsom Grandstand featured asbestos removal, a tricky cut and crane and high reach Demolition. The team managed to pull it off with no loss time injuries, in time, on budget and with an impressive 99% Landfill Diversion Rate.

History

Built in 1923, after the original wooden stand was destroyed in a 1918 cyclone, the 100 year old Grandstand finally meets its end. Auckland Council stated it's not safe or fit for purpose and it is a requirement to demolish as part of the subdivision consent. Ward Demolition was awarded the task of demolishing it. Some key items were gently removed so piece’s of the stand may live on prior to Demolition. On Friday, May 10th 4:30pm, after a particularly challenging week of work the Ward team was treated to after work Pizza and Beers, just prior to the final demolition. The team felt the significance of the moment as it became the last ever social gathering to be held in the 100 years of the Epsom Grandstand.

Recycling

100% of the structures concrete was crushed on site and recycled directly into the foundations for the new development. This has become standard practice for Ward with projects involving high volumes of concrete. Crushing the material directly onsite reduces the projects cost and carbon emissions, as it reduces the amount of trucking required. Alongside this 100% of the site’s Scrap metal was recycled.

All of the plastic seats were donated to a local Karting Club for re use. Roughly 40 tonnes of Native Purlins and Sarking was Salvaged from the roof to be sold for re use.

The unsalvageable wood was sent to Green Gorilla where 100% of it was recycled into wood chip. The remaining soft materials were also sent to Green Gorilla where 75% of this was recycled. For an overall Landfill Diversion rate of 99%.

SEPARATIng the Live/ occupied remaining building

The “Black Building” was to remain while we were tasked with Demolishing the “Yellow” Epsom Balconies building. This was a challenge as some of the live services in the remaining building ran across into the building we had to demolish. This meant we had to hand strip a large section of the roof structure and then cut and crane the truss sections.To ensure this was completed safely we had a crash deck or “bird cage” erected underneath, which in simple terms is a scaffold platform that allows the team to safely remove the roof, minimising/ eliminating the risk of falling. The first truss section removed was within millimetres of the glass on the remaining building. This meant we have to cold cut as much as possible and where we absolutely had to gas cut we used heavy fire protection and extended our end of task fire watch period. The team had to be extremely precise craning this section out to ensure it didn’t smash the glass or damage the building.

Big Demo

Once all the Asbestos removal received clearance, the Roof was sufficiently separated and the prep was complete, we hooked into the large Demolition. Our ZAXIS 350 Highreach was used to controlled drop the remaining roof in one piece. This entails weakening/ removing most of the supports connecting the counter-levered roof to the back wall of the stand, removing some side support poles and pulling the entire roof forward and down to the ground. It takes a lot of skill to do this safely as the lead operator but also the entire team. The building has to be thoroughly searched for squatters prior to commencing, we ensure a sufficient exclusion zone is in place with spotters to ensure that no one breaches it and we hold an in-depth pre start meeting to ensure everyone knows their roles and responsibilities. The task was performed flawlessly.

Once the roof was on the ground our team got to work removing Salvageable Native timber from the scrap metal. Once cleared the High reach and ZAXIS 490 were able to begin on the concrete stand, demolishing and processing it directly onsite into AP 65.