Pacific Marine Group have successfully completed demolition and deconstruction works at Loves Jetty in Mackay Harbour. The scope tendered by North Queensland Bulk Ports (NQBP) included removal and recycling of Loves Jetty and two additional tug berths which were deemed no longer robust enough to withstand impact from vessels. The berths had been decommissioned in recent years after a prominent history operating as a tourist terminal for cruise ships.
A saltwater pump house located on Loves Jetty was deconstructed whereby an engine and a saltwater pump were relocated for reconditioning and/or display purposes. The pump house was demolished on site using a remote-control demolition robot suspended from a barge mounted crane, which allowed sufficient standoff from the freestanding structures. The suspended demolition robot was used due to the fragility of the concrete deck, load spreading structures were added to the deck to allow a small excavator to remove demolition waste once complete.
Due to the extensive scope of splitting 700 Te of concrete decking, diamond wire saws were used to split 30Te sections before offloading to barge for further offloading at a recycling facility.
115 concrete, timber and steel piles were removed and recycled from the Loves Jetty surrounding area. Clean up operations were also conducted at the former site of Wharf 2, whereby diving works were conducted to remove subsea pile stubs to level the area off.
As Mackay Harbour is a major terminal for offloading product such as ethanol, petroleum, diesel and fertiliser, works were conducted over and around multiple pipelines. Several different temporary design works allowed secondary holdback methods for removing structures above pipelines while working between shipping schedules.
Loves Jetty Monument was also relocated and handed over to NQBP
The demolition works will make way for future developments in the harbour.
