The challenge
Howard Stott Demolition was contracted by Capital & Centric to safely dismantle the interior structure to the iconic Littlewoods building, now owned by Liverpool City Council, for its conversion into a world class film and TV studios. This involved retaining three façades and other key architectural features, originally built in 1938.
Sadly, a suspected arson attack in 2018 had caused serious damage to the famous clock tower, which forms a distinctive feature of the art deco style structure. As a result, C & C’s structural engineers for the project, Curtins, requested that real time monitoring was carried out as the demolition work took place.
Howard Stott Demolition chose to approach us, as an expert in the field. Having submitted a detailed proposal giving comprehensive information on the positioning of 50 wireless movement sensors along with weather measurement capabilities, we were awarded a contract for an initial 20-week programme in January 2024.
Our solution
Within weeks, our in-house installation team were on site fitting the compact monitoring devices across the rendered external face of the building, ready to measure rotation in the X and Y axis. All data generated would be automatically transmitted by a single logger back to our online Insite portal.
Steven Howell, our Monitoring Engineer, commented: “Following the first conversations with the customer, we attended the initial meeting on site to get a first-hand understanding of the challenges faced, before we began planning the monitoring package. This led to our proposing the inclusion of a weather station to monitor wind speeds, which might affect stability, as well as the installation of some 50 wireless sensors. We had alerts set up so that the client would be immediately alerted via our Insite system if any undue movements occurred during the works.”
It was a result of this monitoring insight that the teams were able to avoid a potentially dangerous structural collapse.
Ryan Noon, Project Manager for Stott Demolition, explained: “The property had sustained heavy fire damage and unfortunately deteriorated over a number of years prior to the start of this project. We were tasked with taking out the entire internals of the building while retaining the façade because of its importance locally. Deflection monitoring was required by our own engineers, Anduns, to provide us with a Green-Amber-Red, ‘traffic light’ type warning of movement while the demolition was going on. This meant that we could see if there was any over-deflection, understand where and why the movement was occurring and make the necessary changes, ensuring the structure was in a good state ready for the redevelopment.
“We have used Mabey Hire’s environmental monitoring on previous projects, so went to them in this instance to undertake the stability monitoring. It proved invaluable, with the data showing us that the clock tower was twisting and rotating to a much greater degree than anticipated, leaning forwards very close to a public boundary. Following consultation with the client, the decision was taken to demolish and rebuild the tower. Meanwhile the façade retention remains in place and work has otherwise proceeded as planned.”
