Sectioning of reinforced concrete industrial foundations in a sensitive area

The building to be demolished formerly housed a foundry, inside which there were massive concrete foundations reinforced, with considerable dimensions both in plan and depth.

These structures, with areas up to 20 metres wide and heights of around 6 metres, were built to support the heavy machinery used in the metal casting and melting processes, ensuring stability, vibration absorption and thermal insulation from the high temperatures generated during machining.

Initially, it was planned to proceed with demolition using excavators equipped with hydraulic hammers, but this method proved impractical due to the surrounding residential context, which did not allow the use of noisy and vibration-prone equipment.

A solution was therefore opted for controlled demolition cutting with wire and a diamond disc, which made it possible to sectioning the plinths in blocks of a suitable size to be lifted, clamped and removed safely, minimising the production of rubble and facilitating disposal operations due to the compactness of the material.

The work involved a total of approximately 1,400 m² of cuts and 800 linear metres of drilling, performed both by continuous core drilling and down-hole drilling, depending on the operational needs and the geometry of the structures to be demolished.