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Demolition
Building demolition
When tearing down buildings, demolition contractors are
often faced with highly diverse conditions. The statutory
provisions for building demolition and for the reuse of
building materials differ from country to country. And in
most countries increasing environmental protection demands
have resulted in strict rules and regulations.
Controlled demolition, which is now mandatory in many
countries, requires the separation and reduction of all
materials which can be reused, such as steel. In view of the
steadily increasing cost of dumping, recycled material
continues to take up an increasing share of the total volume
of demolition material.
Job reports
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„Yellow twins“ team up to demolish old bridge |
 Specialists from the Archinal company recently
had just one day to demolish a 90-year-old stone
and cement bridge.
Among other factors, this was made possible by
the use of two HB 2200 hydraulic breaker units
operating in tandem, each mounted on a Volvo EC
290B carrier.
The 25 m long and 8 m wide bridge was built in
1914 near Meinerzhagen in Germany. It had been
blown up by retreating German troops during
World War II in order to hold up the allied
troops pursuing them.
 However, after the War, the bridge was rebuilt
in 1945-1946. The fact that no reinforcing steel
was encountered during demolition indicates that
no iron and steel was available for rebuilding
in the post-war era. As a result, the two HB
2200 units had no trouble with the mixture of
natural stone and cement, breaking the bridge
into some 1400 m3 of crusher-sized rubble.
The two operators carefully co-ordinated all
stages of their work, i.e. demolition of the
bridge and foundations, securing and moving the
carriers, collection and preparation of the
rubble for removal, to allow a continuous
process. Archinal completed the job on schedule
without incident. During the demolition work,
traffic was routed over the already completed
new bridge.
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Frankfurt Airport renovates Runway North:
300 x top performance from man and machine |
The oldest sections of Frankfurt Airport’s
Runway North are over 30 years old. Now the
4,000 meter long, 60 meter wide strip is to
undergo complete renovation. Airport operator
Fraport AG has decided on an extraordinary
approach to this project: the runway has been
divided into 300 segments which are being broken
up and reconstructed in incremental nighttime
steps.
Examinations revealed damage to large areas of
the runway, partly due to the permanent increase
in loads. As further repairs or partial
renovation would no longer have been economical,
the decision was taken to renovate the entire
strip.
Preparations for this €38 million project
started a year ago. First of all, the project
team had to solve the central problem of
maintaining take-off and landing capacities. As
the airport is stretched to handle the roughly
1,300 daily aircraft movements with its full
complement of three runways, the loss of Runway
North for any period at all was out of the
question. To get round this, the work is being
carried out exclusively at night, when flight
operations can be covered using a single runway.
The next problem was how to proceed. Here, too,
discussions with materials specialists,
engineers, logisticians and machine experts from
the company Kirchhoff-Heine produced a
practicable solution, which however called for
precision timing, the perfect coordination of
all activities and total reliability from both
man and machine.
Since mid-April last year, every night between
10.30 p.m. and 6.30 a.m. a 15 meter long, 60
meter wide runway section has been broken up,
removed and a new asphalt layer applied. Each
job, each step, each action was meticulously
planned, tried out in a “dry run” and calculated
to the minute. This logistical challenge is
being met by a 70-strong team of specialists and
an armada of trucks, excavators, hydraulic
breakers, loaders, asphalt pavers and rollers.
The convoy swings into action every evening at
10.30 p.m. Just a few minutes after crossing the
concourse, seven excavators take up position and
start breaking up the runway, using five
heavy-duty HB 2200 Atlas Copco hydraulic
breakers and two HB 3000 models.
Kirchhoff-Heine, the company contracted to carry
out the renovation work, worked closely with
specialists from Liebherr Mietpartner and Atlas
Copco in the planning phase to determine the
ideal machine combinations for the job.
Of the seven and a half hours available each
night, exactly 90 minutes are set aside for
breaking and removing approximately 2,000 tons
of concrete rubble. Four and a half hours are
available for calibration, leveling, compacting
the foundation and application and rolling of
the special paving mixture. The roughly 2,000
tons of asphalt are delivered during the day and
kept on site. The low application temperature of
120° instead of 180°C and the addition of
synthetic resins allow the compound to cool and
harden quickly. The final one and a half hours
are needed to install the new lighting and for
marking and cleaning work.
By the time the first jet lands the next morning
just after 6.00 a.m., a whole new runway segment
has been completed. This procedure will be
repeated 300 times until the renovation project
is completed in June 2005.
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Pssssst. Whispering breaker in ‘high-society’
district.
HB 4200 demolishes an old bunker in the Hamburg
suburb of Blankenese. |
 On
the Elbchaussee, the road along the bank of the
River Elbe which is home to Hamburg’s rich and
famous, silence is golden. Traffic calming zones
keep road noise to a minimum, industrial
facilities are out of sight and earshot, and the
only barking dogs are those belonging to
security staff. You almost get the feeling you
have to speak in hushed tones if you venture out
of doors…
 A
short while ago, this idyllic peace was abruptly
interrupted as heavy plant rolled up to demolish
an old World War 2 bunker. Property developer
Mathias Strufe from Breiholz near Rendsburg
explains: “The 5,200 m² site is being developed
for the construction of several duplexes and
townhouses. Demolishing the walls – some of them
2 meters thick – and the 3-meter thick roof of
the bunker is only possible using a heavy-duty
breaker. Unfortunately, this kind of work can’t
be carried out in silence. But as the residents
in this part of Hamburg are extremely sensitive
to noise, the people from equipment hire company
Liebherr Mietpartner recommended a breaker from
Atlas Copco with a particularly effective noise
and vibration damping system.”
Jürgen Frahm is in charge of equipment
scheduling at Liebherr Mietpartner in Hamburg:
“The customer needed high-performance equipment
that could operate under the special
noise-protection requirements of this site. An
HB 4200 breaker from Atlas Copco mounted on a
Liebherr 954 Litronic excavator is the ideal
combination for this “tricky” job.”
Excavator operator Peter Ritter has been using
Krupp/Atlas Copco breakers for years and knows
all about their quality: “We needed a big
breaker to get through the roughly 8,600 m³ of
concrete and 700 tons of steel. The HB 4200
doesn’t just deliver the necessary power, it’s
also incredibly quiet. At a distance of just 50
meters, you can hardly hear it any more. I’ll
also be leaving the bunker wall facing the
residential area standing as long as possible to
as to prevent unnecessary noise until the very
end.”
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