| 75 “With the speed in which the team safely demolished 15 unstable structures on an island with limited resources, we should definitely have a shot.” T T Virgnia Wright Skills put to the test in Port Vila recovery Time was vitally important to getting the Vanuatu economy moving again. CONTRACTING Ward Demolition Family owned and operated Ward Demolition was founded in 1987 by a young Peter Ward coming straight off the farm with a Ute and a tandem trailer and looking to try something new. Nearly 50 years later it employs over 100 people, has 150 excavators including high reach, super high reach, skid steer loaders and wheel loaders, and a combined total of 35 four and eight-wheel trucks and trailers. Peter Ward is Managing Director and his three adult children all work in the business alongside staff members who’ve been with the company for 10, 20 or even 30 years. Ward Demolition is arguably the largest and most highly skilled demolition team in New Zealand, skills that were recently put to the test in the wake of Vanuatu’s 7.3 magnitude earthquake in December 2024. It took all their skills and ‘can do’ attitude, working closely with local company Brunet Enterprises, to achieve the scale of demolition needed for Port Vila’s recovery to get underway, starting with the re-opening of the centre city once it had been made safe, all while working to a tight deadline. “The government had set the goal to reopen the city on the 15th April and to meet that target we had to put in place a large fleet of demolition equipment and a specialised operator to make sure that it will happen,” says Pierre-Henri Brunet, Managing Director of Brunet Enterprises. That collaborative work has Ward Demolition shortlisted in the Collaboration Category in this year’s World Demolition Awards and, while they’ve twice won the Urban Category, been shortlisted for others, and remain hopeful, these international awards aren’t easy to come by as Site Supervisor Bayleigh Ward explains. “To win on the world stage you have to have a really unique project. With the speed in which the team safely demolished 15 unstable structures on an island with limited resources, we should definitely have a shot.” For Ward Demolition having 15 buildings to demolish with a deadline only weeks away meant they didn’t have the luxury of waiting for the 350 tonnes of machinery being barged over from New Zealand to arrive before they began, but instead made do with what they could access locally for the first few weeks of demolition, including a city block of five buildings. Higher risk buildings had to wait but by the time they got as far as the five-storey Lolem House, the most complex of the buildings to be demolished, their own equipment had arrived. “It had an extremely compromised lift shaft which required a crane curtain which we made on the island. Combined with our high reach machinery we were able to ‘nibble it down’ safely,” explains Project Manager Dalton Ward. “One thing that helped us work at speed was having Pierre-Henri’s three eight-wheel, 60 tonne GINAF trucks with a rear wheel steer that can navigate everywhere you can get an eight-wheel truck but they’re twice the size and they’re next level. “We were putting 55 tonnes on each load whereas a six wheeler in New Zealand takes 10 or an eight-wheeler can take 18 to 20 tonnes. Pierre-Henri and his team have been fantastic to work with.” Time was vitally important to getting the local economy moving and, while they wait to hear whether their collaboration wins an award, Vanuatu can get on with its recovery thanks to Ward Demolition and Brunet Enterprises successfully working together to safely achieve that inner city access which allowed Port Vila to get back to work as quickly as possible. WÜÍí àíÙÙ¿¯Ü ͦ /ÆÍ èè¬ÅÆèà èÍ uÜ ÅÍ¿¯è¯ÍÆ
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