Mammoth crane demolishes chemical chimney
A 50m brick chimney has been demolished along with around 70 other buildings at a former Yorkshire chemical plant to make way for a mixed-use development.
Using what is believed to be one of the tallest cranes of its type, demolition and decommissioning company Euro Dismantling Services (EDS) knocked down the chimney on the site in Knottingley, West Yorkshire.
The former 30 acre Oxiris chemical factory site was acquired by Yorkshire-based St Paul’s Developments in October following an announcement by German-based site owners Arques Industries that the factory would be closing due to increased competition from Asia.
Sheffield-based EDS, which specialises in the safe deconstruction, dismantling and decontamination of high risk sites for the chemical, oil and pharmaceutical industries, has been appointed to undertake a decommissioning and dismantling programme by St Paul’s which wants to transform the site into a mixed-use development.
As a chemicals site, Oxiris operated five production units which manufactured cresols, sulphonic acids, thiophenes, phenolic ethers and polyacrylate.
The crane used to knock down the chimney had a 60m telescopic boom and 120 tonne base.
Further decontamination and clearing of the site is taking place, with the project scheduled for completion in September.
Greg Lannon, operations manager of EDS, said: “This project is a highly complex and delicate operation due to the volume and variety of chemicals within the site.
In order to conduct the programme of works to the highest level of safety, we undertook detailed studies of each chemical zone in order to locate residual products accurately.
“Additionally, we employed two former plant workers on a consultancy basis, who have a combined site experience of some 60 years, to advise on our approach to each zone.”
David Elliot, managing director (technical) of St Paul’s Developments, said: “We instructed EDS to carry out the works on the Knottingley site due to their extensive experience in the high-risk, large-scale decommissioning and dismantling arena.
“The project has run smoothly and on-time and after the works are complete we will be undertaking further detailed sub-surface site investigations and chemical testing in order to compile the remediation strategy to submit with a planning application for the future mixed use development.”
