Penguin Factory

Background:

Reigart were asked to carry out the demolition and site clearance of the former Penguin Factory and associated production and warehouse buildings.

Challenges:

A range of single storey and multiple storey production and storage buildings to be demolished

• The buildings were of a number of different construction types, including a large chimney
• Residential housing in close proximity to the site needed to be protected
• Debris or pollution from the demolition needed to be prevented from contaminating the mill race running past the site.


Solutions:

Our project team first needed to protect the mill race from potential pollutants, then demolish the chimney and finally demolish the various buildings.


Mill Race
: Control surface water leading to mill race.
Control of flows in mill race both down and up stream.
Implementation of primary and secondary filtration system to ensure no debris would enter mill race.

Chimney
: The chimney was manually reduced to 22m to facilitate machine demolition.


Housing
: Provision of local street protections as required.
Hand reductions and separations due to close proximity of housing.

Roof Edge Protection
: Provision of roof edge protection. Elevated working platforms utilised for asbestos removals and slate removals.

Finally, the factory buildings were demolished with excavators and the resultant debris recycled.