Pilbara Ports Control Tower

The Port of Port Hedland Control Tower was felled in September 2019 after the construction and successful commissioning of a new-generation facility that better met the needs of the growing port.

WGA was engaged to provide demolition advice for the 50 year old tower. Our approach involved weakening the tower using a number of cuts to control demolition. Base cuts were arranged similar to those for a tree trunk fell with a wide ‘birdsmouth’ cut on the fell side and a flat cut with shims on the rear face. The use of stacked precast rings with vertical post tensioning created some design challenges as the joints and prestress forces required design consideration.

WGA calculated the force required to pull the tower over and sized the pull over rigging, attachment and pull over vehicle. Strict wind conditions were imposed to ensure the temporarily weakened structure remained stable until demolished.

WGA staff supervised the cuts, rigging installation and the final pull over using a 32mm steel rope and a large front end loader.