Engaged by Essential Energy to complete remediation works, followed by the demolition of the former Koolkhan power station, Synergy successfully completed this project whilst accommodating sensitive receptor concerns and exceeding stakeholder expectations along the way.
Located ten minutes north of Grafton on the banks of the Clarence River, the Koolkhan power station was commissioned in the 1950s to provide a reliable electricity supply to the Northern Rivers region. The power station was coal fired and operated daily up until 1979, when it was decommissioned and used as a storage facility over ensuing years.
Activities undertaken included: the removal of PCB contaminated sludge and liquid waste from pipelines and culverts for offsite disposal; Excavation, transport and disposal of 550m3 asbestos containing materials (ACM), PCB and PAH contaminated concrete and soil; Emplacement of clean soil over a 6,800m2 area to form capping layers over potentially remaining contaminated areas.
Demolition works was progressed in stages. The first stage milestone was the ACM clearance certification in early March 2015, which allowed for the turbine hall on the western side of the structure to be collapsed. Induced collapse of the boiler house in late March, left the main structures of the facility on the ground. This technique involved strategically cutting load-bearing beams, before heavy equipment pulled on high-tension cables attached to specific points of the building and the beams, until the top half of the building collapsed down onto the bottom half.
Aligning with our recycling policy, we broke up all concrete walls and the foundation slab and removed all steel reinforcing for recycling, prior to crushing. Over 10,000m3 of concrete was crushed to construct a new driveway into the existing (new) Zone Substation.
