New room at the pier

Swedish contractor Corvara Miljörivarna used three Volvo excavators and a wheeled loader to demolish a 586 square metre (6,300 square foot) former banana ripening warehouse on Banana Pier in the port of Gothenburg, Sweden, as part of the port's redevelopment and the use of the area to host the Volvo Ocean Race teams when they reach the end of their round-the-world voyage in June 2015. The machines, an EC360LC, EC250D and EC160CLC equipped with hammers, crushers and grapples and a L60G loader, completed the job well within a week.

“We had about a week to pull the factory building down – but finished with some time to spare,” said Johan Nonnen, supervisor at Corvara Miljörivarna. “We met with a lot of obstacles but we are a certified demolition company and can confidently get the job done. The warehouse demolition produced about 200 tonnes of waste material. We are always careful with demolition, but this was an extremely large warehouse in the middle of town – and on the water – so the demolition was performed with extra caution.”

Sweden’s Frihamnspiren (Freeport) opened in 1922 and was for many years the heart of Gothenburg’s harbour. It consisted of three main piers – Banana Pier, North Frihamnspiren and Kvillepiren – covering 20 acres. Now, nearly 100 years later, a total transformation of the entire area is taking place to make room for the Volvo Ocean Race 2015 finale.

Banana Pier was in service until the end of the 1990s, receiving Sweden's banana imports, and had specific buildings just to house the nine banana boats. The banana boats still come to Gothenburg, but they now dock further out at modern container docks.