SCIENCE ALIVE BUILDING DEMOLITION

SCOPE

A complex and big building demolition. Being the former Christchurch Railway Station the building was designed and constructed in the late 1950s – one of the strongest government buildings built in its day. It had expansive basement ground floor, foundations including 870 reinforced concrete piles, each pile being 7.5 meters deep and filled with reinforced concrete,  and a further 3 floors, and a clock tower equivalent to seven stories high. The roof had reinforced concrete slabs supported by structural steel frames. The external walls were reinforced brickwork tied to the floors (reinforced concrete slabs encased in structural steel frames) at each levels. Complexities including the manual cutting of concrete encased steel beams, where the high-reach excavator or large shears on standard boom excavator where unable to reach and cut through. Every 10 minutes debris was removed from floors to ensure debris loading was not exceeded. The clearing of the floors was a set procedures to safeguard against any possible risk of collapse.

PERFORMANCE

Programme	Applied logical methodology and staged works over 6 month building deconstruction period.
Environment	DCL carried out dilapidation survey (supplied to CERA), asset protection, service disconnection and building monitoring. Specialist equipment was used to suit the nature of the site and surrounding environment. The basement was cleared of rubble, backfilled to ground level with engineered fill of aggregate, crushed concrete, crushed  bricks.
Health and Safety	Nil incidents. Safety was paramount at all times for public and staff due to the compromised building and the proximity to roads and the public. DCL carried out building stability monitoring using vertical surveys and crack monitoring during demolition and after significant earthquake after shocks.