Gawler and District College is a birth to year 12 (B-12) government school catering for over 1,200 students.
The College identified Corella birds were damaging the asbestos roofing of one of the school buildings and associated plant room, containing Category 2 asbestos materials. They quickly engaged with the Department for Education and Child Development to remediate the situation, placing critical importance on protecting staff and children from any potential asbestos exposure that might occur.
Spotless Facility Services promptly engaged McMahon Services to undertake the remediation works. A team was required on site within one week to remediate all asbestos within a two-week period during the upcoming school holidays. McMahon Services responded immediately and mobilised to commence work one week later in time for the term break.
McMahon Services’ scope of work included the asbestos removal of 1600m2 of roofing and 100m2 of cladding containing non-friable asbestos. Before works commenced the internal surfaces of the building were encapsulated in protective 200μm plastic sheeting. The plant room was physically connected to the school building so remediation works were undertaken on both facilities simultaneously.
Electrical systems were isolated during the works except for a server, which had to remain operational during the remediation works. A timber frame was construction around the server and it too was encapsulated. A negative air fan with a HEPA filter attachment ensured that the air inside heated by the server operations was forced out ensuring that the server operated within its design temperature ranges at all times. Fire services remained operational in both buildings and all works were conducted around this live system.
Both the school building and plant room asbestos roofs were removed and replaced with new roof sheeting, and cleaned of asbestos containing materials. Cladding and the ceiling in the plant room were also replaced and cleaned. Works were fast-tracked by stacking removed sections on the roof and encapsulating them in protective 200μm plastic sheeting, work that would normally be conducted on the ground. This allowed for a single crane movement lifting the encapsulated asbestos sheeting directly into bins. All asbestos was trucked to EPA licenced asbestos receiving stations.
All McMahon Services roofing and cladding specialists are qualified asbestos technicians, and therefore were licenced to deliver roofing works concurrently with asbestos removal works, significantly reducing the delivery program time frames and adding flexibility to the program.
Workforce peaked at 25 personnel with an average workforce of 12 required to deliver the works over a two week period. Approximately 95% of the works were self-performed by local McMahon Services personnel with the only subcontracted work being crane hire and air monitoring.
