Demolition - Mountain Industries

Site Name:

Penrice Silos

Client:

Mountain Industries

Overview:

Decommissioning, asbestos abatement, demolition and site remediation of former Storage Silos

Summary:

This project involved the demolition of 3 main structures associated the unloading of ships, storage and packaging and loading of trucks for distribution of soda ash.

Structure 1 - Ship Unloader. This structure was 25m high and located on rails on a suspended concrete wharf structure over the water. Demolition of this structure required extreme care to avoid overloading of the wharf structure and to avoid the spillage of numerous oils that where contained within the structure and thus avoid contamination of the adjacent waterway, Sydney Harbour.

Structure 2 - Packaging loading building. This structure was a large asbestos cement clad steel frame structure 25m high that was used for packaging over soda ash into bulka bags and for loading of semi trailers. The building also contained a large quantity of machinery used for the movement and packaging of the soda ash.

Structure 3 - Storage Silos. There were 3 12.5m and 33m high steel silos used for the storage of soda ash once unloaded from the ships. The silos were also located in close proximity to a road and the adjacent wharf. The silos also contained over 40t of soda ash that required removal prior to demolition, this required careful work to avoid spreading of the soda ash around the surrounding environment and minimising any contact with water.

Specialty:

Working at heights, working near waterways, chemicals, hazardous materials, politically sensitive local action groups.