Running rubble

UK contractor Squibb and Davies is using a novel approach to remove demolition debris from a site it is currently working on in central London. The company is demolishing an office block on an enclosed site behind the Fenwick shop on Bond Street.

The office block is being brought down brick by brick but there is no vehicular or other access to the site to allow for the removal of the demolition debris. Squibb and Davis, with the assistance of materials handling expert Robson, has therefore run a curved 30 m (99 ft) long conveyor mounted inside a sound-proof temporary tunnel that runs through the women's fashion department in the Fenwick shop. The conveyor is curved to avoid a number of obstacles.

The conveyor can carry up to 60 tonnes of rubble per hour, and emerges high up on the front of the Fenwick building, with a moveable delivery chute feeding the rubble into trucks for transport away from the site, to minimise impact on traffic flow on the street outside.