Old Post Office (Blackpool)

I&R Demolition was awarded the demolition and stripout contract at the Old Post Office site in Blackpool city centre on behalf of S & Co for a major site redevelopment consisting of a new hotel and retail use. The project consisted of stripping out the 5 story sorting office building of all internal walls, lighting, pipe work, fixtures and fittings while prepping for the fit out teams. Most of the stripout works was completed using tower scaffold by PASMA trained staff with the lower floors the use of MEWPS where access was available. The demolition package included the old courtyard buildings and canopies, 70ft chimney on the sorting office elevation, boiler house on the roof, roof crane, and 2 external fire escapes one 5 story and one 2 story.

Due to the construction of the building the only access to each floor was via the external fire escapes which meant all hardcore materials from the stripout works was sent down brick chutes into the courtyard area with the staircase demolition being conducted once the stripout section was complete. The demolition works was done by demolition excavators with selector grabs being the most efficient and safest way to carry out the works.

As this site was located in the city centre of Blackpool a dust suppression unit was setup to reduce the dust level on site and preventing any harm or nuisance to the public or environment while demolition activity or removing hardcore off site is underway. Site traffic was kept to a minimum during the day time to reduce traffic congestion with the high volume of traffic on the surrounding highways. With this in mind we had a full traffic management plan implemented stipulating what times machinery can be delivered or collected from site and frequent skip exchanges only conducted while traffic volume was very low in the surrounding area.