Premier Foods

Spread over an area of 70,000m², this site included an old four mill made up of various single- and multi-storey buildings as well as high-rise concrete silos.

In addition to the demolition of these buildings, we also needed to remove all tarmac road surfaces, concrete hard stands, car ports and parking areas, the weighbridge and office, as well as all foundations and sub-surface concrete. All concrete rubble was crushed to G5 material and any contaminated waste was safely disposed of off-site.

The project’s main challenge was the demolition of 64 silos, with an average height of 37m. Although their demolition leant itself to the use of explosives, we decided that this would create a significant impact on the environment through noise, vibrations and dust. Using explosives would also mean that substantially high insurance policies would need to be taken out by the client and the cost of the project would increase as a result of the required building preparation needed. Instead, Draco procured a high-reach demolition excavator fitted with a 20-ton hydraulic hammer. All structures were broken using the top-to-down breaking methodology.

At Draco we are always looking for innovative solutions to carry out our tasks safely and with minimum impact on the environment. Our solutions also need to be cost effective for our clients too. As a result of using a mechanical method to demolish the buildings, the project was a huge success.