Contractor Palardy TP carried out some of the demolition work utilising three Volvo excavators.One of the Volvo machines was a 46-tonne EC460CLD, with a 6t pulverising attachment.There were also two EC360s: one a standard machine and the other capable of being equipped with a high-reach boom configuration.“The industry has been transformed in recent years and is continuing to evolve rapidly,” Palardy spokesman Stéphane Ayrault said. “Modern demolition sites are nothing like the battle zones of yesteryear. It’s not like the wild old days. Everything is very controlled and done in stages.”Ayrault said the first phase of work was to clear out and clean the buildings, and a lot of that was done manually or with small machines. “Then there was what is called ‘selective deconstruction’ before the big excavators were brought in,” he said.There was a huge emphasis nowadays on recycling and on the environment, Ayrault said.“Everything which can be recycled we recycle. There’s not just the concrete, which is crushed and then used in civil engineering projects. There are also companies which specialise in re-using wood and plaster and other materials.”He said demolition work was not nearly as dangerous as some people imagined. “Wild wrecking balls have been replaced by careful planning and sophisticated step-by-step demolition. “We’ve needed big machines but there were no real complications. “There have, of course, been some breakdowns – there always are with machines in this demanding line of work – but they have all been minor and there are Volvo service agencies everywhere so things have been sorted out quickly.”
