PROJECT
Barrington Cement Works
In August 2018, Redrow Homes engaged our services to demolish the former Cemex Cement Works in Barrington, Cambridgeshire.
The project would enable Redrow Homes to commence with the construction of a new housing development comprising 220 homes.
The cement works had been operational for 90 years before its closure in 2008, and at its busiest, produced 1,000,000 tonnes of cement for the UK construction industry.
Technical challenges
We carried out the controlled detonation of the 62m high chimney in December 2018, an event that received significant press coverage.
Under the watchful eye of the Health & Safety Executive, the chimney had a carefully-considered amount of explosive placed, stemmed and secured in readiness for the blowdown.
With an exclusion zone of almost a mile, involving several road and footpath closures, the event was tightly controlled by an in-house resource of 40 staff.
SERVICE OVERVIEW
The works at Barrington included demolition of all buildings on-site (including the 62m high chimney), asbestos removal, slab/foundation removal to 3m below existing ground level, crushing and stockpiling concrete brick on-site to 6F2 spec.
Site clearance
We began work at the site in August 2018, clearing structures around the mills, precipitators, kilns and boiler structures to create the necessary room to fell the chimney.
Chimney demolition
We worked hand in hand with our in-house design consultants, Swanton Consulting, to engineer and model the chimney demolition sequence, checking the stability and proposed collapse mechanism
Summary of service
Demolition
Asbestos removal
Explosive demolition
Slab/foundation removal
Crushing and stockpiling concrete brick to 6F2
