Asian Pacific Group called on McMahon Services to remove asbestos at the heritage listed art series hotel in Spring Hill, Queensland.
The hotel which was constructed in the 1960’s and designed by architect Karl Langer is one of the few examples of its type remaining in the Brisbane CBD.
The hotel, which was also once home to the former Department of Main Roads, Registration and Licensing will eventually include a mix of short-term residential apartments, retail and office accommodation.
The project involved a full internal strip out of 15 floors, most of which had to be completed by hand. The team removed all furniture and fixtures, internal walls, ceilings and floor coverings in preparation for the demolition of walls, partitions and wet areas. The demolition of the loading dock area with rear roof structure attached to a heritage wall had to be undertaken with extreme care, following heritage listed guidelines. The low density asbestos board, friable asbestos pipe lagging and bonded sheeting were taken away by our specialist team. A total of 13,000 square metres of vinyl asbestos tiles was removed using a ride on floor stripper, allowing a more efficient and safer removal process that reduced manual labour requirements.
Some of the challenges throughout the project included two major storm cells, the first storm bringing large hail stones, shattering several glass windows in the building. The threat of storm water inundating and damaging the hotel had to be managed by ensuring that all storm water systems were working to optimum levels. Pumping systems such as those in the lift pits were kept operational, as flooding in the building was unavoidable.
Project planning was phased to maximise the crew deployment with friable and bonded asbestos removal occurring simultaneously to the demolition works to accelerate the program. The debris which was removed manually had to be reduced in size to fit into the hotel lifts.
The McMahon Services team used 660 litre wheelie bins with a specialist forklift attachment to deposit the debris into a receptacle on the ground floor.
The McMahon Services team successfully liaised with Local Government and the Department of Heritage and Conservation on a number of heritage issues throughout the project.
