56 | DEMOLITION INDUSTRY Ward Demolition T T Hugh de Lacy A busy time for demolition crews PH (09) 299 6213 or (09)296 9954 or visit: www.pascoe.co.nz Proud to support Ward Demoli�on With over 25 years experience we can provide your complete site prepara�on package There’s no job too big or small, call us to discuss your requirements The focus of the demolition industry has shifted from knocking things down to cleaning up the potentially climate-damaging mess afterwards, and the volumes that Auckland company Ward Demolition are recycling have become mind-boggling, owner Peter Ward says. “We were engaged to crush the stockpiled Auckland Airport runway early last year and crushed no less than 65,000 tonnes of concrete that went on to be re-used on-site – which gives some idea of the vast tonnages involved in our work,” Peter says. “It was really hard concrete, 65Mpa, like granite, and it made the machines really grunt, and it would have bankrupted the wrong team. “Instead we made a massive saving in carbon pollution by eliminating so many truck movements in disposal, and by substituting new blue metal quarry content replacement with the crushed concrete.” Another major project that Ward Demolition completed recently was the demolition of the old Longburn freezing works in Palmerston North which produced 82,000t of crushed concrete, and also released rebar comprising somewhere between 4% and 6% of that total for re-use or sale. “That’s a lot of steel recovered after crushing the concrete to 65mm particles, all of which will be re-used on-site in the building of a new industrial park there,” Peter says. “If we crush 100,000t of steel-reinforced concrete we’re going to get at least 4000t of rebar out of it, the equivalent of 222 articulated truck-loads at 18t per load “That’s a huge environmental benefit. “People think demolition is just a matter of pulling down old buildings, but over the 30odd years I’ve been in the industry it’s become a lot more complicated than that, with the accent now heavily on re-use and recycling what was once just waste bound for a landfill.” That said, crushed concrete is not easy to sell. “Builders are still a bit suspicious of it and, even though local authorities have got a mandate to have it recycled and re-used, they often don’t think that far ahead and they’re not doing us any favours by not using that mandate,” he says. From a farming background, Peter launched Ward Demolition in 1987 on the backs of a Landcruiser utility and a trailer, doing small demolition jobs on his own, or working for contractors. He later acquired a six-wheeler truck and a Bobcat excavator, followed by a 12-tonne digger fitted with a concrete breaker that cost more than the digger itself. Ward Demolition’s growth since those days has been extraordinary: the company, with a staff of around 150, now runs a fleet of 120 excavators ranging in size from one tonne to 70t, including high-reach and super-highreach arms, supported by skid-steer and wheel loaders. There’s a haulage fleet of 38 trucks, including four transporter trucks to shift gear between sites, all equipped with GPS systems. The company also operates a blue rock quarry at Te Kauwhata, with a range of aggregates marketed from the main depot in Onehunga along with the crushed concrete. Another Ward Demolition aid to the environment on demolition sites is the innovative high-pressure dust suppression system fitted to the machinery, which sprays a fog of pressurised water over the operating area. Though it’s the concrete crushing operation that offers particularly significant environmental advantages over new quarry-supplied aggregates, getting the market to adopt recycled concrete as a first-choice building product is not proving easy, Peter says. “There’s still a reluctance for suitable re-useable and recyclable material to be used as replacements for new material. “This is due to existing standards and conditions set by regulators, for which suitable documentation can’t be provided at a reasonable cost,” he says.
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