World Demolition Awards shortlist - Urban

(PHOTO: Mann Group)

World Demolition Awards 2023 - Urban shortlist

Despe
COUNTRY Italy
PROJECT Former Italcementi Headquarters
CLIENT Ferretticasa

Following the sale of the Bergamo-based cement giant Italcementi, Despe was contracted to demolish its former headquarters, which consisted of a number of older buildings with an area of 10,000 sq m (107,000 sq ft), situated on busy streets.

The demolition was carried out in two phases. After intensive planning with police and local authorities facilitated the closure of a nearby road and traffic diversion, phase one saw Despe demolish structures measuring up to 30 m (98 ft) high over a single weekend.

The task required 14 machine operators, eight demolition machines, two dustbusters and two water cannons, alongside two mobile cranes that were used to support protective tarpaulins during the works. The second phase was dedicated to the surgical demolition of the site’s Building A, which due to its location and its height of more than 30 m (98 ft), required the use of a 150-t excavator equipped with a 40-m (131-ft) boom.

Grupo Mitre
COUNTRY Argentina
PROJECT Demolition of Av Maipu Building
CLIENT Municipality of Vicente Lopez

Located in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in a busy commercial area with a nearby railway line, the seven-storey building on Avenue Maipu had previously suffered two partial demolitions, and was left in a dangerous condition.

Grupo Mitre’s scope of works comprised the total demolition of ​​the building from the ground floor to the slab on the top floor, with the basement to be left in its current condition. Mitre, with constant dust control measures in place, used three electric demolition robots from Brokk to demolish building’s masonry and reinforced concrete structures, securing the site with perimeter fencing to protect adjacent properties and members of the public from debris.

Recovery efforts resulted in 99% of the project’s waste being transported to recycling centres. Grupo Mitre says the works were executed to within the established deadlines, the specified quality, and with the highest environmental standards.

Mann Group
COUNTRY Australia
PROJECT 51 Flinders Lane
CLIENT Lendlease

For the demolition project at 51 Flinders Street in Melbourne, Australia, which consisted of a 10-storey concrete carpark, Mann had to install a loading dock within the footprint of the building for the loading of waste transport vehicles. Over 30 t of steel was used needed to maintain the building’s centre of gravity and prevent collapse.

Additionally, as the carpark’s suspended slabs had only one-way stressing cables, all of Mann’s excavators had to be operated in a type-writer motion – left to right/north to south – in a sequence that repeated every 1.5 m to 2.0 m, to prevent collapse.

Milburn Demolition
COUNTRY United States
PROJECT X Tampa
CLIENT Kast Construction

Milburn Demolition was contracted to wreck a three-storey building adjacent to a historic church and bell tower, without damaging or undermining the local landmark. The building to be demolished was erected in the 1950s and was used as a school for the church.

The cast-in-place school was directly tied into the church and the bell towers’ exterior, with beams pocketed into the church’s terracotta clay tile and brick exterior. Milburn Demolition began by shoring up the church and restoring parts of the bell tower, which had become structurally unsound.

The company then provided a full bay separation across all three floors, using a mixture of remote-controlled saws and recovery equipment working over catch-deck shoring, which captured the slabs as they were cut away from the original structure of the church. Lastly, Milburn stabilised the façade of the church and completed other structural repairs, leaving the historic church separated and restored.

Trifecta
COUNTRY United States
PROJECT Wake Forest Baptist Hospital - Parking Garage
CLIENT JV with Brasfield & Gorrie and FL Blum

Working around an active hospital in a bustling North Carolina city in the US, Trifecta demolished a three-storey, cast-in-place, post-tensioned parking garage built in the early 1970s. The hospital’s primary parking facility, Trifecta employed vibration monitoring and dust suppression to ensure minimal disruption to the hospital.

Sacrificial shoring and ground-level mechanical demolition was used to take down the structure, with oversized equipment used to maintain control of the structure. Later, a helipad and hangar were added to the company’s scope of works.

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