Overview:

Summary:

Employed under an ongoing contract by New South Wales Public Works and Delta Group, ASP Australia was tasked with demolishing Badgery Creek Airport’s obsolete buildings and their associated sub-structures including sheds, ground slabs, septic tanks and pools, and in turn safely removing their waste and all asbestos-affected materials from the site.

The team  has been working through both single and double-storey residential buildings of varying build quality and construction. Furthermore, each individual building and its associated sub-structures were comprised of varying materials, including; brick veneer; double-brick, weatherboard type, timber and asbestos Super Six cladding; timber or metal frames; concrete roof tiles; asbestos cement-based eaves; timber fascia board; metal guttering; brick piers; timber trims; doors; glass; plasterboard linings; vinyl flooring and concrete slabs.

The project presents one main challenge to the team in so far as the structures underneath the residential dwellings have not been completely catalogued, thereby creating various unknown risks for each building. As a means to reduce those risks, all mains electricity and water supplies to the site have been cut off at the site’s perimeter, and confirmed to be safe through audits carried out by licenced electricians and plumbers before ASP set to work.

The principal heavy machinery and plant equipment employed throughout the project includes:

• A 30-tonne Excavator for use across general demolition;
• A 14-tonne Excavator to assist with load out material and waste processing;
• A 3.8-tonne Bobcat Skid Steer to provide further load out assistance; and
• 2x Semi-Trucks to collect and transport waste material from the site.

Given the nature of the materials at play, ASP is required to work with extreme diligence to ensure that all waste being removed from the buildings and their sub-structures is appropriately stockpiled and stored under strict OH&S guidelines:

• Concrete and Brick– General Solid Waste (Non-putrescible). Waste concrete and larger brick fragments are broken down into 600mm sections and transported via semi-truck as “raw feed” to ASP’s certified concrete and brick recycling partners.
• Steel and steel reinforcement – General Solid Waste (Non-putrescible). All steel and steel reinforcements are sheered from their original structures using oxy-torches, before being cut down further and prepped for transportation to assigned steel recycling plants.
• C&D Waste – Generally Non-Recyclable Materials. ASP personnel separate all C&D waste from recyclable waste streams and load it, under maximum compression to lessen fuel consumption, into semi-trucks to be disposed of at EPA-licenced landfill sites.

ASP Australia have ensured that 100% of all brick, concrete and steel waste produced onsite has been effectively prepared for recycling and will continue to do so as the project advances.