Whitworth Street

Overview

Wilmor Group’s industrial demolition team carried out the strip out and full demolition of this 1920’s concrete framed warehouse building in a busy Manchester city centre location and adjacent to a railway line.

Ikon Plc employed Wilmor Group to carry out a specialist demolition of a disused 1920’s warehouse.

This project called for a highly experienced team which was formed and managed by Wilmor Group Contracts Manager Alan Graham.

With a viaduct at 1.3m away from the rear elevation and only 2.7m from live overhead lines, this project required close liaison with Network Rail and pre-planned line closures during a tightly managed program of works.

An additional 2 floors had been added to the top of the original building during the early 2000’s. These additional floors were steel framed and required careful hand demolition.

Alan organised an intelligent scaffold design to three elevations of the building. Erecting parts of the scaffold could only be carried out during line closures. These occurred between 12.40am and 07.10am and with Network Rail requiring a two-hour disconnection/re-connection window at either end of the shift meant that our working time was reduced to four hours per shift. The scaffold was erected over a series of 5 closures, costing £4500 per closure.

Wilmor Group has a great deal of experience in dealing with busy city centre locations and technical demolition projects. Considering the busy roads and pub business next door to the site, the scaffold design was designed specially to allow the pub owner to park adjacent to the site.

“Noting and acting upon the concerns of all stakeholders is key to running a project of this complexity smoothly and ensuring client satisfaction” explained Alan Graham, Contracts Manager.

Indeed, over 600 letters were sent to residents surrounding the site to ensure they were aware of the program and how it might affect them.
A heavy-duty freestanding hoarding provided a site boundary and the scaffold was completely wrapped to contain debris. The scaffold design on the rear elevation was adapted to take the wrap as the rear wall was demolished by hand.

Machine demolition was then introduced and 100t of crushed 6f2 material was laid over the road for the 30t Hyundai 300 demo spec machine with hydraulic muncher to work from without damaging the tarmac surface.

Following demolition, the foundations and footings were removed and crushed on site for use during the new build project.

“This has been a thoroughly enjoyable contract and has called on our specialist expertise in several areas. We look forward to working for the client again and a big well done to all on the Wilmor Group’s team for bringing the job to a successful conclusion” Alan said.