ON SITE
Erith Reaches for Remote A potentially tricky contract at a London hospital has required Erith Contractors to think outside the box and to embrace cuttingedge remote control technology. Mark Anthony reports.
Someone that clings doggedly to their beliefs in the face of adversity, good sense and overwhelming evidence to the contrary is said to have the courage of their convictions, as if stubbornness somehow equates to bravery. But surely it takes at least as much bravery, together with a healthy dose of modesty, to reconsider a position; to embrace the input of others; and to change direction for the greater good? Take, for example, the contract to demolish a five-storey block that formed part of the sprawling Whittington Hospital campus in Archway, North London. That project was priced and won on the basis that it would be tackled by a high reach excavator, and risk
assessments, method statements and project schedules were drawn up to match that methodology. And that chosen method would likely have been just fine. But upon closer inspection, and with the wider demolition industry having experienced three scaffold collapses in a matter of just six days, the Erith team took it upon themselves to re-evaluate and re-imagine. And, even though the Komatsu high reach had already been shoehorned into position at the rear of the structure, the company changed its plan of attack with the agreement of the client and with the input of its chosen equipment supplier, BooBoo Plant Hire.
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Hemmed In
Like most buildings in the nation’s capital, the hospital building is hemmed in on all sides. The front elevation looks out onto the busy Highgate Hill that climbs steeply from the nearby Archway London Underground station. To the rear is another live hospital building. To one side, there are residential buildings while, to the other, there is a live primary school. And it is the presence of that primary school that first prompted the rethink on methodology. “The high reach was in position, the building had been fully enclosed with scaffolding and the entire