Priestly Demolition’s winning Civils Demolition entry

A rapid demolition project carried out by Priestly Demolition Inc is among those shortlisted for this year’s WDA, under the civils demolition category.

Demolition of the Gardiner Expresssway in Toronto, Canada, took just 9,000 hours over five weeks to complete, with the Priestly team only allowed to carry out works at weekends due to the site’s city location.

The Gardiner Expressway was a bridge that rose 21 m above the waters of the Don River, with four traffic lanes and an elevated structure that measured 21 m in height and 550 m long.

Demolition of the structure, which also required the environmentally sensitive waters of the Keating Channel and Don River to be protected, saw Priestly’s team demobilise and remobilise more than 35 pieces of heavy equipment - and protective measure for traffic and pedestrian, each and every weekend to complete the task.