Armac powers ahead…

Armac underway with delicate dismantling in turbine hall.

DSCN1820Armac Group is currently deconstructing the top four floors of the Alstom Power Building in Stafford above the live Turbine Hall. The Turbine Hall must remain fully operational as it contains a 350 tonne capacity overhead crane, the largest of its kind in Europe.

Armac is using a 70 tonne crawler to service the dismantling from the upper floors to ground level but have also utilised a 3 tonne mini crawler crane at upper floor level to provide additional hook time for the steel dismantling works.

”The problem with using the main 70 tonne crawler is that every lift would have been a blind lift so it can be slow to centre the hook using radios. With the use of the 3t mini crawler we can quickly dismantle the steel frame with top burners and rest cuts and then lower several steel sections at a time to ground level with the large crawler,” says contracts director Noel McLean. “The crane can also pick and carry the sections to a central loading out point. We assessed the permissible floor loadings and designed the lift plan around the use of the 3 tonne crawler with great success. We have removed an entire floor of steel in two days using two top burners and the mini crawler, literally halving the original programme time for each floor”.

Armac is due to complete the £400k Dismantling Scheme by mid November.