Victoria Hotel, Maidstone East

Due to the building’s position over a live railway line, the demolition had to be carefully planned and managed to minimise any stress or impact placed on the Week Street rail tunnel below. Prior to demolition, Rhodar’s expert team began by removing all timber flooring from the ground floor to allow the exposed basement to be backfilled with 6F2 crushed concrete.

The basement voids surrounding the tunnel were filled to a height of 600mm above the crown of the tunnel, which added weight to the tunnel to compensate for the reduction in applied loads from the demolition of the building and also acted as an ‘impact mat’ to evenly spread any excess loads across the whole tunnel structure. 

This allowed for a 47-tonne high reach excavator to be positioned over the tunnel at the rear of the site, with its 28m reach being used to take the building down floor-by-floor, negating the need for any internal access by personnel.

A fully designed scaffold was erected around the building and fully monoflexed to give safe access to the roof and upper floors. This was later adapted to act as a demolition screen to ensure safe working and to minimise any disturbance from dust and debris to the local area.

This allowed for a 47-tonne high reach excavator to be positioned over the tunnel at the rear of the site, with its 28m reach being used to take the building down floor-by-floor, negating the need for any internal access by personnel.

A fully designed scaffold was erected around the building and fully monoflexed to give safe access to the roof and upper floors. This was later adapted to act as a demolition screen to ensure safe working and to minimise any disturbance from dust and debris to the local area.