An important step in the proposed redevelopment of the Royal Liverpool University Hospital has taken place with the demolition of Linden House, the tower block in the site’s centre, by demolition experts from J Freeley.
With the block situated in a sensitive position between the main hospital and dental hospital, a busy road to one side, and close to routes heavily used by staff and visitors, health and safety considerations, dust control, noise minimisation, and traffic management, were a top priority during the 16-week project.
While originally planned to bring down the block floor-by-floor using miniexcavators with breakers and back propping of the floors to ensure stability, a detailed survey revealed that the building may not have been capable of withstanding the imposed loading.
J Freeley md John Freeley explained: “We developed a plan to dismantle the building’s top storeys by hand until the structure was just six storeys high. Our operatives were safely strapped in using the latest multi-rail harnessing system as they painstakingly broke out the floors using breakers.
“Chutes were incorporated in the scaffolding to safely discharge demolished materials to ground level. We could then bring down the rest of the building in a carefully controlled manner using a high reach excavator.”
