Keltbray bring in the Komatsu big guns to help clear the site of the ‘Gunners’ new home at Ashburton Grove
30/04/2004

Keltbray, the London based demolition and enabling contractor group, used their extensive range of Komatsu Excavators when they were awarded the £6 million contract to clear the Ashburton Grove site which is to be the new north London home of the Arsenal Football Club. The stadium is to be completed in time for the kick off of the 2006/7 football season at a cost of £357 million and will seat 60,000 fans.

The challenge for Keltbray was to clear the 60 acres site by demolishing the existing buildings and levelling the land, which varied by up to 3.5 metres in height. With a fast track programme in front of them, Keltbray brought their first team of Komatsu excavators into play. While a 45 tonne PC450 was loading the broken up pieces of reinforced concrete into dump trucks, 21 tonnes PC210’s were waiting on the far side of the site to load the dumped concrete into the onsite crushers. The crushed concrete was then used on the site for piling mats.

Meanwhile a 60 tonne PC600 excavator was used to dig out the required levels of soil, over 100,000 cubic metres of heavy clay based soil had to be removed. It took only 3.5 passes with the PC600’s bucket to fill each dumper truck. At the height of the project 140 trucks per day were leaving the site for the trip to the landfill location.

Paul Deacy, the Keltbray Site Director summed up the key role of the PC600, 'With the demands of the fast track programme we needed the power and breakout force of the Komatsu PC600 excavator to lift the heavy clay soil and to load the material as fast as possible to keep the trucks moving within the planned timings'.

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