Feb 06 - Aspect sails through sensitive decontamination project
Aspect offers one of the UK’s widest portfolios of asbestos-related services and is frequently called in for more sensitive work in historically and culturally important locations. We have completed many jobs for the Royal Palaces over the years and recently we were appointed for a project at one of the country’s leading maritime sites.
The Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust contracted with Aspect for the full decontamination of one of the living museum’s buildings plus a thorough environmental clean of all the artefacts within. It is intended that the building, an old metal-working facility called No 1 Smithery – will eventually serve as the National Ship Model Collection Centre.
As No 1 Smithery is both Grade II listed and a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and the artefacts important parts of dockyard history, it was vital that the 12 man team worked with due respect and care for their surroundings. Aside from tackling the residual asbestos contamination of the soil and the structure, the most challenging aspect was dealing with the large quantities of abandoned metal working artefacts – some of which will be set aside for possible future display.
The team’s objective was to safely remove the artifacts from the building via a series of airlocks. The metal items were transported by a folk lift truck and then taken to the first stage of the airlock/working bay. In this bay, the metal item was decontaminated by means of jet washing. The runoff from this process was intercepted and filtered before discharge into the nearest foul drain. Once decontaminated, a second forklift entered the first chamber and removed the artifact to the lay load area at the front of the building
The job was turned around in just six weeks to the complete satisfaction of the client.
