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 | | BRIDGE REMOVALS CARRIED OUT PERFECTLY | | | Cantillon | | 12/06/2008 | | | With a huge audience of residents and interested parties, Cantillon, a market leading provider of demolition services, has completed the removal of two Grade II pedestrian bridges linking different parts of the busy listed Barbican Estate with the famous City Point building and former Milton Court site. These works were undertaken as part of Cantillon’s contract to remove asbestos and to demolish the complicated arrangement of buildings including a 5 storey residential block suspended on stilts above a fire station together with a 4 storey City of London building.
The bridges, one of which weighed more than 82 tonnes, were lifted from their mountings in one distinct movement following days of meticulous planning and risk assessment to ensure removal would not affect nearby city workers.
First to be taken down was the 23 metre long Moor Lane link. This was constructed of a steel support with 100mm of concrete and 50mm of asphalt to cope with pedestrian wear.
Cantillon staff stripped down the bridge by removing the asphalt layer, parapet walls and hand railings. By doing so it was made as light as possible prior to being detached and lifted from position.
A 5mm cut was burnt at both ends of the bridge using an oxyacetylene welding torch – also known as a gas axe – which severed the structure from its connections. Its weight was taken by a crane and then, to complete the job, the entire link was lowered to the ground, guided by a long reach excavator.
With the first bridge removed, Cantillon moved on to take out the link between Milton Court and The Barbican, Silk Street, which was constructed of reinforced concrete.
After a week and a half of extensive planning and preparation, the removal work took the Cantillon team just a day to complete. The bridge links were cut using a specialist excavator and then, using a 250 tonne crane, the entire structure was guided to the ground. To finish the job, the team then broke this down and recycled the bridge on site, making it yet another successful project for demolition specialist, Cantillon.
The removal heralds the completion of the Milton Court contract making way for the construction of a new 43 storey multi-use centre consisting of apartments and a school of music. | |
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