Being prepared for demolition
Plum Tree Court was a 17 storey tower block on the Salford High Street complex in Salford. Completed in 1970, it was 48 metres tall. It had an area of 500m2 on plan. The building was of a Fran Concrete Panel Construction with additional strengthening at the gables. It was demolished from October 2005 to October 2006 by floor by floor deconstruction carried out by Walter Forshaw Ltd for City of Salford Council. The contract had a value of £575,000. Demolition was carried out by using scaffolding to all floors with full monarflex sheeting. Top floors deconstructed using mini-diggers and bobcats with debris lowered in skips. Through-propping to upper floors was installed for additional loads applied by the mini-excavators and debris. A crawler tower crane was utilised for lifting the floor panels and skips and lowering them to the ground. Lower floors were demolished using Hitachi EX800 Super Reach demolition excavator fitted with a concrete pulveriser with 360 degree rotation. Once demolished, the extensive foundations were excavated the site was finished with top soil and a knee rail boundary.