Cut the final remnant of the garage with a wire saw

Text: Sveinung W. Jensen, Tellus Kommunikasjon

The garage was part of the neighbouring property that Farmar bought in 2023, and for a long time it had restricted manoeuvring space for the largest vessels at the base in Lundevågen.

But now it's finally gone.

In the photos at the bottom of the article, you can see how the harbour area around the Farmar base has been completely transformed.

“Not many people carry out operations like this in this way. It’s rather fun,” says Farmar’s managing director, John W. Nilsen.

THE REMOVAL OF of the garage is an important step in the process of building a quay around the entire bay at the Farmar base. The first of a total of four construction phases of the quay was completed in November last year.

Demolition work has been under way for several months. In the end, two enormous concrete piles and five steel columns were left standing in the water.

“We lifted the steel columns out using cranes. But the concrete foundations were considerably heavier and more demanding to remove. That’s where we had to get creative,” says crane operator Tony Kristiansen.

INSTEAD OF sending divers down to cut structures underwater — which is both expensive and involves a significant HSE risk — Farmar developed its own method for cutting the concrete columns free.

“We designed a frame from the steel we’ve dismantled here. We fitted wheels to it and connected it to a wire saw at the top,” he says.

The frame was slid down along the column, and the wheels guided the wire into position. This made it possible to saw through the columns in a controlled manner underwater, without any personnel having to go into the water.

“We cut the first column six metres underwater, and the second at a depth of 11 metres. Everything was carried out using an ROV. It went very smoothly,” says Kristiansen.

THE WORK was carried out by four Farmar employees in collaboration with Salen Betongsaging, which supplied the diamond wire and the wire-saw cutting service.

Farmar was responsible for the rigging, the fabrication and the on-site execution.

“Farmar Aton was used as the rig. It’s ideal for this purpose,” says Nilsen.

FOR THE SECTIONS that remained underwater after the first round of cutting, a separate solution was also devised for handling and securing them.

“For the part that stayed underwater, we built an aluminium frame that we hung from a chain sling. Then we lowered it over the pile and tightened the chain,” says Kristiansen.

HE POINTS TO the steel columns and the cut concrete columns now being stored on land before they are used in the next construction phase of the quay project.

“Re-use matters to us. We’ve got plenty of steel and concrete here that can go straight back in as foundations for the new quay,” says Nilsen.