Small Equipment Takes on Big Demolition Job

Bobcat equipment helped Priestly Demolition bring down a nine-story parking garage at the Toronto airport.

A major demolition project at Canada’s busiest airport presented some unique challenges for Priestly Demolition, Inc. After assessing the situation, the company turned to its fleet of smaller, more compact equipment.

Last Spring, the Aurora, Ontario, firm began tearing down the ninestory concrete parking garage at the Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Continuous takeoffs and landings on multiple runways and heightened security were two of the concerns that dictated how Priestly would handle the demolition. ”Dust, noise and vibration were other reasons why we couldn’t use a wrecking ball or implode the structure,” says Ryan Priestly, whose company typically uses much larger equipment on this size of project (for example, large excavators to load the recycling/collection bins).

To demolish the parking garage as quickly as possible, while meeting airport guidelines, Priestly hoisted Bobcat® 320 excavators to the top of the nine-story structure. Because of the weight and size of the compact excavators, the machines were able to work simultaneously on multiple floors. The excavators, equipped with Bobcat hydraulic breaker attachments, worked up to 12 hours a day demolishing each 100,000-sq.-ft. floor of the garage.

The demolition waste was picked up by Bobcat skid-steer loaders with industrial bucket grapple attachments and transported to the edge of each parking level. The buckets were emptied over the side into a debris pit.

On the ground, other skid-steer loaders, also with industrial grapple buckets, sorted the demolition waste into piles for recycling.

To help keep the project on schedule, Priestly Demolition purchased four new S250 skid-steer loaders from Matthews Equipment, Etobicoke. “We like the Bobcat brand because our operators are familiar with the product and because they operate well in our demolition projects,” says Priestly. “I knew that my Bobcat dealer would have the four additional loaders that I needed immediately, while other equipment dealers would have taken weeks to get me the machines.”