Working in the heart of the city

PP O’Connor recently completed the demolition of four multi-storey buildings in the heart of the UK city of Manchester. Century, Bennett, Sussex and Clarendon Houses have been removed to prepare way for the No.2 St Peter’s Square, a new 11 storey building comprising 14,968 square metres (161,113 square feet) of office space and 478 square metres (5,142 square feet) of ground floor leisure space

The scope of operation at St Peter’s Square included the removal of all remaining loose furniture, soft strip of internal features and complex building separation from the remaining development within the block ahead of the hard demolition activities. The demolition work also included the removal of ground floor slabs on two of the blocks. The remaining two buildings had basements and O’Connor developed a temporary works solution to retain the existing basement walls during the demolition works and facilitate the piling operations when the construction of the new building begins.

Demolition rubble from the superstructure was taken from site to the company’s own local recycling facility and crushed so that it could be returned to site to create the piling platforms to the new basement area of No. 2 St Peter’s Square. Metal removed from the site has also been recycled.

Charmaine O’Connor, PP O’Connor CEO, said: “The demolition of four buildings in the heart of the city centre is not without its challenges. We’ve worked closely with our client Laing O’Rourke, and MPT (who are building the new Metrolink tram stop at St Peter’s Square directly opposite our site) to minimise the impact and disruption caused by the works."

“We delivered the project on time and on budget, with all of the materials excavated or removed either being recycled back into in the final building or used elsewhere. I look forward to seeing the completed No 2 St Peter’s Square in 2017.”