TOP DOWN 54 M DEMOLITION for Zeus Liebherr R980, flagship of the Red Fleet, in UHD version and on its way to Lyon, France.
In the urban fabric of Lyon Part Dieu, the French demolition company Demcy, part of the Eiffage Group, has demolished the Tour M+M building for DCB International, which will soon construct a new building here at the forefront of technological and environmental performance. A reinforced concrete colossus, measuring 35 x 35 m in plan, 13 floors above ground and an impressive 54 m in height, was demolished by Zeus, for the first time with its elegant telescopic boom. In. cab Andrea Cinerari.

Demolishing in an urban context
As Andrea Cinerari reminds us, Armofer, an undisputed protagonist of the great transformation of the Metropolitan City of Milan, knows very well the 'environmental' and logistical difficulties that working in urban centres imposes. Closures, use of public space, and proximity to sensitive and very sensitive settled activities have become commonplace in working in the city. The executive design of the demolition, and therefore also the Lyon intervention, takes all these variables into account from the outset and the project is designed, together with the client, to provide a concrete response to these problems. In this way, it is possible to respect the site's timetable and the needs of the city. The choice of technology is obviously central to this process and defines and makes the client's choices possible.

The choice of security
In this case, the presence of Zeus on the site made it possible to use the 'traditional' approach (which at this height is not traditional at all!) of the Top Down method for the progressive demolition of the building, avoiding the mixed solution of lowering the building down to the height accessible to the demolition excavators, by means of a much longer and more onerous demolition work at height with a fleet of mini-machines. In these cases the time necessarily becomes longer; the provisional works required are substantial and the operating team large; and last but certainly not least, the risk of personnel falling from heights must be managed with great seriousness and cannot be eliminated, as is the case when working exclusively from the ground and from the cab of an excavator.

Setting up the machine
Zeus's super long demolition c-equipment, with its telescopic boom, makes it certainly unique in Europe with these features. At the tip Zeus mounts an NPK S16XCR shear weighing 1.8 tonnes and with an 850 mm opening. The telescopic boom was manufactured, as we anticipated, by Kocurek Excavators: it articulates on three extensions and guarantees a maximum height at the pivot point of 62 metres, with a load at the tip of 3 tonnes. For reference: the standard version of the R980 carries a peak load of 3 tonnes at 55 metres, reaching 15 tonnes at 26 metres. The operational demolition procedure used by Andrea Cinerari is the classic top-down mechanical demolition, i.e., proceeding from the top down, demolishing the reinforced concrete structure in modular portions and bays, always taking care never to compromise the static of the structure itself (except for the portions to be demolished); not to weigh down the underlying structures, in particular the floors, with rubble and, last but certainly not least, to avoid unwanted projections of material and even dust, from the demolition front.
And this at certain heights is of paramount importance.

The Transport of Zeus
In spite of its size,' Cinerari informs us, 'we tried to devote resources and thoughts, together with Liebherr, so that Zeus would also be 'agile' to move and have available on construction sites in many different configurations for different problems.
Mind you, it's no joke to transport 200 tonnes of machine with three demolition booms, but thanks to the cooperation between technicians we developed strategies and technologies so that this complex operation would still be manageable and mainly with our own forces. The aim, for example, was to contain the service machines, avoiding the crane, for assembly and testing operations for transport. An example of this is the 4-cylinder vertical stroke, or jack-up, which allows the wagon to be loaded onto our transport vehicles without the need for a crane. Even the counterweight, made from a single 34-tonne moulded casting, has hydraulic movement controlled from the cab. To put it simply, it goes up and down on the transport wagon practically by itself, without the need for a support crane, and above all does not require the presence of personnel in the vicinity. These seem to be things of little importance, but in reality they are what give agility, speed, economy and also safety during transport and set-up operations on the construction site.
Zeus, complete with its 3 arms, travels with 9 packages, decidedly exceptional transports.