June 2017, disassembly and demolition of one of the old high-rise buildings commenced. The demolished materials were used to construct an exposition building as a pilot project, closely situated to the old buildings. The framework of the expo-building consists of three concrete units, coming from the upper level of the old high-rise building. Each unit has a weight of approx.. 40 tons and consists of two concrete walls, a concrete roof section and a concrete floor.
Wagenborg Nedlift received the order to lift the three 40 tons concrete units from the apartment block, to transport them to the expo building site and lift them onto their new foundations there.
The biggest technical challenge appeared to design a feasible lifting device for lifting the concrete units. Upon study of our engineers, it appeared that regular lifting materials were not suitable for this delicate job. So, the engineers of Wagenborg Engineering were called in to work out a solution.
Specialists from the construction company, demolition company and Wagenborg Nedlift sat together to set up a list of requirements for the lifting device:
The final design of the lifting device consists of specially designed support beams with upper plate to support the units and prevent bending of the floor. At four locations, holes of 50 mm were made for the Dywidag screw studs .These screw studs were connected to the support beams. At the upper side, the Dywidags were connected to the especially by Wagenborg Nedlift designed lifting anchors. With short grommets, the lifting anchors were connected to regular lifting beams.
After the design for the hoisting frame was approved, the engineers from Wagenborg Engineering took over control of the manufacturing and testing of the hoisting frame. This was followed by the ultimate test: the lifting of the concrete units in Kerkrade.
After finishing construction on the expo building, construction works on the houses started in 2019, for which a number of units from the old high-rise buildings were hoisted again, using the special hoisting construction.
SUPERLOCAL is a unique construction development, because materials and techniques are reused for the construction of new homes. This is new in the Netherlands. SUPERLOCAL is a key project of IBA Parkstad, an initiative that (again) puts the Parkstad region on the map by boosting the economy and society. The project is in line with the IBA theme "Recycle City" and offers initiators HEEMwonen and the municipality of Kerkrade the opportunity to assign an even higher ambition to the project.