A project to upgrade a harbour wall at Ireland’s premier fishing port has proved the important advantages of hydro-demolition, says Hydroblast Operations Director Ross McDonald.
Killybegs Harbour Centre, in County Donegal, is the newest sheltered deep-water port on the west coast of Ireland. It is a major fishing harbour and is developing a major commercial cargo port.
As part of this strategy, a €30million improvement programme is underway, funded largely by the Irish government, which includes construction of a new 120-metre harbour wall.
This resulted in a civil engineering contractor commissioning UK water jetting contractor Hydroblast, a member of the Water Jetting Association (WJA), to carry out hydrodemolition on a pier wall.
The project involved upgrading temporary modifications by replacing five wooden piles with 10 new steel piles, and the creation of a new permanent concrete pier edge.
Hydroblast Operations Director Ross McDonald said: “Using jack hammers could have caused vibration damage to retained parts of the slab. Wire cutting would have damaged steel rebar.
“Hydrodemolition overcame these risks. The technique also minimises hand arm vibration and dust inhalation risks and has a lower carbon footprint than mechanical demolition.”
The objective was to replace the pier edge with C40/50 concrete. A strip of concrete, 30m-long, 450mm wide, and 450mm deep was removed, equating to just over 6m3 of concrete.
Most of the concrete was removed using a hydrodemolition robot. This delivered additional operational and safety advantages.
The robot was operated at 2200 bar (32,000 psi) with a water flow rate of 122 litres per minute. A hand-held jetting lance was also used to trim a small edge.
The hydro-demolition project, carried out in May 2021, was completed in three days, a day ahead of schedule, reflecting the speed with which such work can be carried out.
Contact Hydroblast: www.hydroblast.co.uk | sales@hydroblast.co.uk | t: 01677 424 542