Every winter as the calendar turns from December to January, people across the country start to reexamine the past year and look ahead at what’s to come.
Whether it’s personal goals like heading to the gym more or business goals tied to improving the bottom line, there is no time like a new year for taking stock and making resolutions.
However, data shows that the vast majority of New Year’s resolutions don’t last. According to U.S. News and World Report, 80 percent of resolutions fail by the time Valentine’s Day rolls around.
The reason behind this overwhelming failure rate can be tied, in part, to our desire to see instant results even in the face of complex challenges.
In promoting his book “Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t,” author Simon Sinek gave a talk in which he describes how the desire for immediate results often prompts people to give up on their objectives before realistic changes can manifest.
“If you go to the gym and workout, and you come back and look in the mirror, you’ll see nothing. And if you go to the gym the next day and come back and look in the mirror, you’ll see nothing. So clearly there are no results. Success can’t be measured, [exercise] must not be effective, so we quit,” Sinek says. “But if you believe you’re on the right course of action and you stick with it, you commit yourself to the regime, I’m not sure the exact day, but I know you’ll start getting into shape. … It’s the daily practice of all the monotonous little boring things that matters the most.”
This issue marks the start of Construction & Demolition Recycling (C&DR) magazine’s 20th anniversary. In looking back on our time serving the C&D recycling sector, we’re reaching out to industry leaders as part of our ongoing “Evolution of an Industry” feature (page 57) to talk about their time on the job. According to Dan Costello, owner of Costello Dismantling in West Wareham, Massachusetts, Sinek’s fitness analogy on making gradual progress also applies to what it takes to succeed in the construction, demolition and recycling industries.
Asked how he’s been able to grow and adapt after 40 years on the job, Costello says, “You need to just keep plodding on. I think you have to have a will and a desire to continue and succeed, and it’s never easy. Things change constantly. You just have to be ready to address whatever issues may come up.”
Regardless of whether you’re picking up C&DR for the first time or you’ve been a subscriber since our first issue rolled off the presses in 1999, we’re committed to doing our part to keep you abreast of industry changes so you can make more informed business decisions in 2019 and beyond.
That’s what C&DR set out to do 20 years ago, and it’s a resolution we’re proud to maintain today.
Working in a winter wonderland
Features - Operations Focus // Dust and Odor Control
While water can create hazardous conditions on demo sites in the winter, snow offers a safer alternative to dust control methods.
When working on a demolition job in warmer temperatures, a stream of water is usually the basic building block of dust control. But in freezing temperatures, that method can get dicey—and icy. Spraying with water in the colder months can create slick conditions that are hazardous for workers to walk and work on. That doesn’t mean water has to be taken out of the equation, though. It simply needs a little modifying on the molecular level.
Enter water’s chiller cousin, snow, which can be equally as effective at mitigating dust in colder temperatures while assuring safer working conditions. Natick, Massachusetts-based HKD Blue manufactures, rents and sells snow guns that double as water atomizers to provide efficient and environmentally sound dust control (among other unconventional functions, like smoke emission suppression and ice bridge construction). Gordon Santry oversees the U.S. division of HKD Blue, while his parents, Charles and Anni, oversee the product line’s parent company, HKD Snowmakers.
While some may see snow as a nuisance, Santry and his family have always seen it as a solution. Before founding HKD Snowmakers, Santry’s grandfather, Herman Dupré, set out to find a more efficient way to churn out snow thick enough to coat the slopes at the ski resort he operated in Pennsylvania. After 20 years of experimenting and honing, Dupré developed the technology for a snow gun that became the base of the business he founded with his daughter and son-in-law, Snow Economics, now known as HKD Snowmakers, also based in Natick.
About four years ago, Santry said engineers at the company discovered that the flurries, along with atomized water, could address a problem not normally handled by snow machines: controlling dust safely during winter demo jobs. Since then, HKD Blue has manufactured atomized water-producing machines both with and without snowmaking capabilities.
“With HKD Blue entering new industries and developing new technologies, I’m thrilled by the opportunity to expand our business and product line,” Santry says.
Let it snow
Santry says the snow produced from the snow machines, much like the real stuff, is a natural air cleanser. The crisp, pure feeling in the air after a fresh flurry isn’t just in your imagination. Snow really does make the air cleaner by capturing pollutant particles in the air as it wafts to the ground.
“As you’re forming a snowflake, the dust particle becomes the nucleus of the snowflake,” Santry says. “As the particulate is forming, dust latches onto the forming crystal and falls down to the ground. You’re ultimately left with a pile of dusty snow.”
That’s the concept snow guns can put to use, blasting a flurry into cascading buildings as they kick up dust. The snow creates a sort of suspended wall that prevents the dust particles from drifting beyond the work site, dragging them to the ground instead. The concept is similar to using a water stream, but snow provides a safer solution in the colder months. When a water stream is used for dust suppression in the winter, it can freeze on the ground and create slippery, hazardous conditions for workers, whereas snow simply creates more fluff for them to plow through.
Along with cleaning the air and creating a safer work site, Santry says snow can also be used as an alternative to plastic tarps to cover remaining brick, concrete, steel and dust on the ground in the winter months as site operators work to clean it up. While snow provides a more natural alternative to plastic tarps, it is also more cost-effective, as tarps can be pricey and sometimes need to be replaced multiple times during a project.
Two in one
Snow, of course, can only be produced in freezing temperatures, so it’s a viable dust control solution solely for contractors working during the winter or in colder areas. However, some snow gun manufacturers, like HKD Blue, offer dual capabilities in their product line so the equipment can be used year round. HKD Blue’s V-575 series of machines, for example, produce both snow and atomized mist—water that has been converted into fine droplets. The machine can generate atomized mist by using 25-horsepower pumps to pressurize water between 250 and 500 psi. Then, the water is pushed through the company’s GEYSER nozzle, which Santry says produces appropriately sized droplets to capture dust.
To make snow, the V-575 has three nucleator nozzles that introduce those tiny water droplets to expanding and cooling compressed air in a 7.5-horsepower air compressor, which begins the formation of ice crystals. The crystals are then projected into the bulk water flow of the central nozzle, facilitating snowflake production. Santry says that when dust particles meet forming snow crystals in the air, it facilitates further crystallization. Santry said nearly every part of the machine can be controlled remotely, preventing operator exposure to potentially harmful dust and debris.
“Every function of it, whether it’s dust emissions or emergency stopping, is completely remote-controlled,” Santry says.
Image courtesy of HKD BLUE
Winter is coming
The combination of dust suppression offerings provided by HKD Blue’s equipment is something Thomas Frongillo, the owner and operator of F&D Truck Co., Inc. in Millbury, Massachusetts, recently took advantage of as he embarked on a large demolition project that began in the summer and stretched into winter.
Frongillo contacted HKD Blue in the fall of 2017 in search of dust suppression equipment that could fit in the bed of his pickup truck during demolition of the Notre Dame des Canadiens Church in Worcester, Massachusetts. HKD Blue worked with Frongillo for about two weeks to design a custom solution, which was then manufactured at HKD’s factory and sent to F&D Truck just in time to be in compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) silica law implemented in the fall of 2017.
“Because we do our own manufacturing, we can do any sort of customization,” Santry says.
When Frongillo started the job in July, he used atomized mist from his custom V-575 SS, along with two asbestos sensors from subcontractors, to control and monitor concrete, asbestos, brick and silica dust as two Cat ultra-high reach excavators picked away at the 17,000-square-foot church. Rather than aim the spray at the top of the building, which would obstruct the operator’s view, Frongillo’s team aimed it at the ground to prevent the bulk dust emissions that come from falling debris.
While concrete and silica dusts tend to clog up sensors, Santry says the atomized mist prevented blockage and maximized uptime for the project, which wrapped up in November. And although demolition of the 89-year-old church stirred up some controversy among the community over its preservation, Santry says the project “didn’t get a single dust complaint, which was great.”
Now, winter is here, and so is the time to use snow during demolition jobs. Frongillo recently used his V-575 SS to coat leftover materials from the church demolition with snow as his crew works to clean up the site. Santry says Frongillo will be busy with wrecking and demolition jobs all winter—so much so that Frongillo recently ordered another V-575 SS to continue utilizing the power of snow on future job sites.
The author is the assistant editor for Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine and can be contacted at tcottom@gie.net.
A look ahead
Features - Industry Outlook
The construction sector has enjoyed record growth since rebounding from the Great Recession, but questions abound as to whether it can keep its momentum in 2019.
The construction sector is a worthy barometer for measuring the strength of the economy. It is also a worthy indicator of potential demolition and recycling opportunities on the horizon. While the building sector has enjoyed record growth since rebounding from the Great Recession, questions abound as to whether the construction market can keep its momentum as we move into 2019 and beyond.
Where we’ve been
Construction spending and employment are among two key benchmarks economists utilize to gauge industry strength. Looking at separate graphs from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of both construction spending and construction employment dating from pre-Recession levels in 2006 to October 2018, one can see an unmistakable pattern prevailing. The booming spending and high employment numbers enjoyed before the Recession are followed by a precipitous and steep decline on both graphs, eventually bottoming out around 2011, followed by a steady and consistent climb up to the peaks the industry is presently enjoying.
According to this data, construction employment was at a 10-year high as of Oct. 2018, with 7.3 million workers employed. Using data comparing Oct. 2017 and Oct. 2018, employment in the nonresidential space increased by 4.4 percent, while residential employment increased by 5.3 percent year-over-year.
According to Associated General Contractors of America Chief Economist Ken Simonson, the robust contractor employment numbers are a byproduct of a decade of economic prosperity, and worker pay is reflecting this demand.
“After nearly 10 years of economic growth, most sectors of the economy need and can afford more construction,” he says. “With the U.S. unemployment rate at a 50-year low of 3.7 percent, it is not surprising that unemployment is also low among construction workers—they get jobs elsewhere if they don't get snapped up by a contractor. Therefore, contractors are raising pay to compete.”
“The ongoing growth in demand for construction workers is rendered apparent in data characterizing industry job openings,” he says. “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a decade ago, the number of job openings for construction workers was roughly a third of what it is today. … Associated Builders and Contractors cites an estimated 500,000 open construction positions in the United States. There is only one thing that can happen when an abundance of job openings meets an inadequate supply of workers: Compensation costs must rise, and they are doing just that.”
Coinciding with near-record employment numbers, construction spending was at an all-time high of $1.31 trillion as of Oct. 2018, which is 9 percent above the previous peak in 2006. Using data comparing Oct. 2017 to Oct. 2018, total construction spending increased 4.9 percent year-over-year, with private residential spending increasing 1.8 percent, private nonresidential increasing by 6.4 percent and public construction spending increasing by 8.5 percent.
According to Simonson, this growth is indicative of strong nationwide construction activity across sectors, not just certain geographic hot spots that are enjoying success.
“Construction is growing at a moderate pace and is unusually well-balanced both geographically and by segment,” he says. “From October 2017 to October 2018, construction employment increased in 44 states and [Washington], D.C., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Construction spending put in place increased at a 5 percent rate in the first 10 months of 2018 combined, compared to the same period in 2017, with nearly identical growth rates for residential, private nonresidential and public construction, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.”
Basu says that, among other factors, increases in state tax revenue are helping fuel increased construction activity, as states are allocating more of these dollars to help fix roads, bridges and highways.
“Another set of public policies are helping strengthen construction activity and the broader economy: public works. It used to be that the country’s infrastructure largely depended on what spending bills came out of Washington, D.C., but that’s no longer the case,” he says. “While a much-discussed federal infrastructure package has taken a legislative backseat, the recent economic expansion has helped pad state coffers. According to the Pew Research Center, 34 states are taking in more tax revenue than they were prior to the Great Recession, even after accounting for inflation. … These surpluses have caused some states to reinvest in their own roads and highways.”
ilkercelik | Adobe Stock
What to watch for
Changes in legislation and regulation are key influencers that affect how the construction market responds.
Basu notes that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed in Dec. 2017, appears to have been positive for the industry. He cites the increase in the amount that can be immediately expensed for certain types of purchases under the law, including equipment, from $500,000 to $1 million, as a driver of more activity.
“While it still might be too early to see the impact of the tax law in any data released by official government agencies, other sources provide some insight. For example, as of this writing, year-to-date sales of Ford’s F-series of trucks, commonly used in the construction industry, were higher in 2018 compared to the same time period in 2017. This likely is a result of the overall strength of the economy coupled with advantageous changes built into the new tax code.”
While the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act appears to have been a net positive for the industry heading into 2019, questions loom as to how recently enacted legislation and prospective regulations may influence the construction sector in the near future.
Chief among the regulatory concerns industry participants are watching are how the 25 percent tariffs on steel and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum will affect prices and demand.
“U.S. tariffs and retaliatory actions by trading partners are already raising costs and uncertainty for contractors and also jeopardizing demand from a variety of customers that are exposed to higher input costs or have been shut out of foreign markets,” Simonson says. “These effects may be magnified in 2019 as contractors buy more materials that were previously free from tariffs because they were already in inventory or had been pre-ordered.”
Simonson says that uncertainty on how these tariffs may be adjusted in the future makes it difficult to guess how contractors will react in the coming year.
“Tariffs on steel and, to a lesser extent, aluminum are likely to push up costs. But the uncertainty about whether tariffs will be increased, frozen or removed makes estimating even harder than usual,” he says. “Some firms are likely to increase contingencies in their bids; others may try to get owners to share the risk of unanticipated price increases.”
Basu says that despite the fears that initially persisted regarding how these tariffs would impact U.S. relations abroad, the ramifications on trade haven’t been as pronounced as some anticipated.
“Despite a narrative fixated on tariffs and trade wars, global economic performance remains decent, which, all things being equal, is supportive of U.S. economic growth,” he says. “The most recent forecast from the International Monetary Fund indicates that global economic growth in 2018 will be 3.7 percent—about the same as last year. While there are signs of growing stress in countries such as Argentina and Turkey, nations such as Canada, India, Australia and Germany continue to report acceptable economic performances.
“Earlier this year, it looked like America versus the world. But since that time, trade agreements have been signed with Mexico, South Korea and Canada. Discussions with the European Union are ongoing. The situation with China remains unsettled, but at least fears of a global trade war have abated.”
In addition to recently passed regulations, political power shifts brought about by the midterm elections could affect what new legislation is enacted in 2019 as the Democratic Party takes control of the House of Representatives. However, Simonson cautions that contractors shouldn’t expect widespread changes to the status quo.
“It is possible that the change in control of the House of Representatives will facilitate a compromise on a federal infrastructure bill. The next Congress must also renew the federal highway and transit funding bill that expires in late 2020. But little legislation of importance to construction appears likely to reach the president or get his signature in the next two years,” Simonson says.
Looking ahead
No crystal ball exists to forecast how 2019 and beyond will play out for contractors, but current leading indicators show “few signs indicat[ing] a looming recession,” Basu says.
Basu points to the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index, which he says has been a historically good indicator of future downturns over the last 50 years, to forecast that “economic momentum will persist for at least another two to three quarters.”
He also notes that ABC’s Construction Backlog Indicator, which is an index used to show work that is under contract but not yet completed, is trending in a positive direction, portending a backlog of work in the pipeline for contractors across the country for much of 2019.
Simonson says that he expects economic tailwinds to continue to propel the construction sector for the foreseeable future, leading to growth in spending and employment, although potentially at a less robust clip than in 2018 thanks to factors such as rising interest rates and elevated building costs.
“I expect 2019 to be another year of moderate growth for construction. However, contractors should expect continuing uncertainty and probably higher costs relating to tariffs, even tighter labor markets and a possible downturn in orders from interest-sensitive owners, such as hotel developers and municipal-bond issuers,” he says.
Although Basu is optimistic that the industry will continue in a positive direction in 2019, he cautions that recessions are historically inevitable after prolonged periods of prosperity. He notes that contractors would be wise to keep this top of mind as the year progresses.
“Contractors should be aware that recessions often follow within two years of the peak in confidence. In 1999, the U.S. economy was booming,” Basu says. “That year, the economy expanded 4.8 percent. Within two years, the nation was in recession after the dot-com bust of 2000.
“Similarly, the economy was humming in 2005, thanks largely to a red-hot housing market. That year, the U.S. economy expanded 3.5 percent, the last time it achieved the 3 percent threshold. The housing bubble burst in earnest during 2006’s first half, and by late 2007, the nation found itself in a very deep recession.
“This is not to suggest that recession is necessarily coming in 2020 or 2021. But, contractors should be wary and remain vigilant with respect to cash flow management and balance sheet health during the year ahead. The average contractor is likely to be quite busy in 2019, but beyond that the economic outlook is decidedly murky.”
The author is the editor for Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine and can be contacted at aredling@gie.net.
A perfect match
Features - Equipment Focus // Excavator Attachments
How contractors can boost productivity by choosing the right excavator demolition attachment.
Sometimes, making the right choice is the differentiator between average and extraordinary. This can be said of many things: hiring an employee, buying a new car, ordering dinner at a restaurant—the list goes on. The same sentiment can also be said of choosing the right equipment for a demolition job. Many demolition attachments may work OK for a particular application, but selecting the perfect attachment for the task at hand has the potential to help contractors finish a project more efficiently and effectively than they otherwise could.
With hundreds of sizes and styles of demolition attachments on the market ranging from small grapples to massive pulverizers, contractors can’t expect to blindly pick an option, attach it to an excavator and get top production. Rather, today’s demolition professionals should refine their demolition attachment selection process in order to knock out jobs faster and easier. Considering the application, the carrier, the return on investment and other variables can help contractors better find the right tool for the job in question.
Attachment selection
Before selecting a tool, it is important to first consider the type of work the attachment will perform. From primary to secondary demolition and from rebar-enforced concrete to wood and brick, the application should be the first factor to guide an attachment choice.
When starting to demolish a structure, multi-quick processors, shears, crushers, pulverizers and demolition grapples tend to be the top picks for primary demolition. The choice between them depends on the type of material being targeted and how it needs to be broken up.
Crusher and pulverizer attachments, for example, best tackle jobs made up of mostly concrete. Choose a crusher if the structure is composed of concrete with little or no rebar and if it’s necessary to break the concrete into chunks large enough for easy sorting and recycling. A pulverizer attachment better handles concrete that’s heavily reinforced with rebar. Unlike the crusher attachment, the pulverizer will break the concrete into small pieces and cut through the embedded rebar, allowing the concrete to fall to the ground rather than hang onto the metal reinforcements.
Pulverizers also can be used to break concrete into manageable sizes during secondary demolition. If the demolition involves both crushing concrete and cutting steel, contractors should consider combi-crushers that incorporate both cutting edges and teeth.
If concrete isn’t part of the demolition picture but steel is, a demolition processor with shear jaws or a mobile shear attachment will work best since they’re able to cut through steel better than a tool meant for multiple types of material.
When working jobs with light materials (such as wood and brick, which are commonly found in residential demolition applications), use a demolition grapple. Besides breaking apart materials, rotating grapples work well for sorting during secondary demolition and increase versatility and productivity by allowing a wide range of movement.
For versatility across different demolition jobs, a multi-quick processor often fits best. The attachment’s interchangeable jaws can handle a multitude of materials. The jaw types found on multi-quick processors include crushers, pulverizers, a combination of both and steel-cutters. Some manufacturers offer additional specialty options, such as jaws for cutting through timber for forest industry applications; jaws for cutting steel tanks, pipes and vessels; and highly powerful jaws for heavily reinforced concrete.
While multi-quick processors may cost more than other attachments (approximately 15 to 20 percent more than crushers, for example), they more than make up for that difference in price with their versatility afforded by their interchangeable jaw sets.
Power source
After determining the best type of attachment for the job, contractors should consider the technology powering the tool. Cylinders power demolition attachments, and typically, the larger the cylinder, the more powerful the tool. Because of this, contractors seeking more demolition power in the past had to buy or rent a larger excavator to handle the larger attachment. That’s no longer the case.
As manufacturers incorporate more technology into the attachments they build, some are able to achieve as much as 25 percent more power without increasing the cylinder size. To pull this off, manufacturers build additional chambers into the cylinder to allow for as much as 20 percent more surface area. Often, this results in an attachment with the same power as a tool two sizes larger. This means that a section of concrete that may take a competitive crusher attachment five or six “bites” to break through only takes the tool with the enhanced cylinder technology one or two.
This advancement in technology gives contractors access to amplified crushing and cutting forces they previously couldn’t have achieved without the expense of investing in a larger tool, as well as a bigger carrier to operate that tool. In addition to the cost of the tool itself, larger carriers also come with higher operating costs. The high power-to-weight ratio made possible by more efficient tools—higher on attachments with this technology than any other tool in its size class—also opens the door to more efficient high-reach demolition. This is both because contractors can use smaller carriers and because the attachment’s lightweight and superior cylinder technology improves tool performance and fuel efficiency.
Some attachments with innovative cylinder technology reduce carrier fuel consumption by up to 20 percent compared to other models. In some cases, the attachment’s efficient design allows it to function normally when the carrier is set in economy mode, achieving the same performance as competitive attachments on an excavator running at full throttle.
In addition, this advanced cylinder technology allows manufacturers to better design high-performing attachments. When combined with double-acting speed valves, the advanced attachment designs not only offer improved power and efficiency, but also improved productivity. Together, the enhanced cylinder design and double-acting speed valves deliver faster cycle times—from 3.8 seconds to 5 seconds on bigger tools—and as much as 20 percent more power than conventional cylinders.
Ensuring the proper fit
Of course, the best attachment in the world still needs a suitable carrier to perform well. Contractors should be sure to match the attachment to the appropriate carrier size and weight. Heavier attachments, naturally, require larger, heavier carriers that cost more to operate. Using too heavy of an attachment can cause excessive wear to the excavator and will affect performance. In addition, tools that are too heavy for a machine present a safety risk for other workers near the carrier. Conversely, an attachment that is too small reduces productivity.
Professionals should also ensure the carrier has enough hydraulic capacity to feed the attachment when considering the right tool for the job. Inadequate flow or hydraulic pressure will slow the tool’s cycle times, reducing productivity. Too little pressure also results in less closing force or torque, depending on the attachment.
Another item to check is the attachment’s hydraulic circuit requirements. Is the excavator equipped with enough auxiliary hydraulic circuits for the attachment? For example, rotation shears and multi-quick processors require two double-acting hydraulic circuits—one circuit for opening and closing the jaw and one for 360-degree rotation. Attachments that don’t rotate, such as static pulverizers or shears, only require one double-acting circuit.
Maintenance needs
When determining the attachment best suited for the application and power rating, look for a product that is durable and easy to service. Some attachments may seem like a great investment at first but end up resulting in a nightmare of downtime and repair costs when put into operation.
One method for choosing a low-maintenance attachment is to find a tool with no (or very few) protruding parts, such as hydraulic hoses. These can be easily damaged during operation, particularly in harsh demolition environments. Instead, contractors should look for attachments that have components that are enclosed within the tool, yet are still easy to access through service openings.
Contractors will also be wise to keep wear part service life in mind when choosing a tool. For example, shear and crushing attachments’ cutting edges and teeth need to be replaced when worn. While exchangeable cutting edges are an industry standard, it’s still smart to ensure they are available.
When considering multi-quick processors, operators should pay attention to how quickly jaws can be switched out. Some manufacturers build multi-quick processors with jaws that operators can change within minutes on-site, compared to the hours needed to bring many other attachments back to the shop to exchange. Workers may only need to manually remove one pin from quick-exchange models during change-outs, compared to the three pins that need to be removed from many other manufacturers’ processors. The rest of the jaw exchange process is done hydraulically from the safety of the cab. This system not only removes the hassle of pounding out two or three pins, but also virtually eliminates the danger of the jaw falling and injuring a worker after the last pin is removed.
Choose carefully for success
With most jobs, the best tool depends on the situation. Seasoned buyers and industry newbies alike can benefit from taking a careful look at their options and requirements while searching for a new attachment. Additionally, it’s always a good idea to get advice from the dealer and manufacturer.
Picking the best pairing of tool and carrier goes beyond the application and the power that can be achieved. Contractors should examine every aspect of the attachment and the subsequent carrier to form a pair that will boost productivity and ROI and, potentially, open up opportunities to work in new applications. While making a wise equipment choice might take a little foresight, selecting the right tools for the job can help demolition professionals take their job site performance to new heights.
Francois Martin is the general manager of Kinshofer North America. He can be contacted at f.martin@kinshofer.com.
Tunnel vision
Features - Cover Story
How Hayden Wrecking overcame tight space restrictions, lack of access and oppressive conditions to bring down an industrial freezer at Butterball’s Mount Olive, North Carolina, facility.
Unique demolition projects often require innovate approaches to overcome on-the-job obstacles. One such project was the demolition of an industrial freezer at Butterball’s Mount Olive, North Carolina, facility.
This 95-foot tall, 26,000-square-foot processing freezer use to be instrumental to the company’s operations. However, over the years, it became inefficient to continue to operate. Although the freezer was being phased out of operation, it continued to be cooled to below freezing, costing Butterball $14,000 a month in utilities. It was also a substantial waste of space that the company and its operators had to contend with. The issue for Butterball in having the freezer removed was that it was located near the center of the plant with critical operations surrounding it and no viable access points for demolition crews.
Butterball initially consulted with ARCO Construction, St. Louis, to find a solution for removal. After preliminary plans failed to provide a viable demolition option, ARCO brought in the team from Hayden Wrecking, Washington Park, Illinois, to help craft a tailor-made approach formulated for the specific challenges of the job.
Devising a plan
Difficult demolition projects are nothing new to Hayden Wrecking. The 40-person company, which was founded as Hayden Lumber & Wrecking by William R. Hayden 73 years ago, specializes in industrial and commercial demolition work where precision is paramount.
“We do a lot of very difficult and surgical dismantling work inside of chemical plants and oil refineries. Also, as our concrete cutting and coring division grows, we are doing a lot of this as well,” Ben Hayden, who is Hayden Wrecking’s third-generation owner along with brothers Nick and Brian, as well as the company’s VP of operations, says.
Familiar with the company’s expertise from prior jobs, ARCO reached out to Hayden to develop a plan, with the project being awarded in November 2016.
“They brought us in early on in the process to discuss a safe and efficient way to complete the project. One of our dismantling managers, Lloyd Copeland, worked with ARCO’s team to develop a plan and pricing that everyone was comfortable with. Since this structure was built completely surrounded by structures added at later times, there was no direct access to the freezer without going through structures and buildings that were to remain in place. Lloyd and our team developed a plan to temporarily remove components of the buildings that were to remain so we could access our work, and ARCO developed a plan to reconstruct these components when demolition was complete.”
Hayden says that the planning process was a labor-intensive one, with executive staff making site visits and keeping in close contact with personnel from ARCO and Butterball to understand the scope of work required and devise a strategy with sufficient complexity for the obstacles at hand.
According to Hayden, it was this top-level support and collaboration on the front end that aided in laying the groundwork for a successful project.
“The amount of prep, planning and design almost took longer than it took for us to dismantle and clean up our structure,” Hayden says.
Clearing the way
Hayden says that like with most demolition jobs, “time was of the essence” to complete the removal of the Butterball freezer.
With a four-month window from the time Hayden Wrecking was awarded the contract to the scheduled completion date, Hayden wasted no time in getting to work.
Because of space limitations, Hayden needed to formulate an efficient way for materials, equipment and personnel to reach the designated work area. The team settled on creating a small access tunnel from which everything would be funneled in and out of the site.
“Once design was completed and agreed upon, we spent approximately two weeks selectively removing portions of structures to remain to essentially create a tunnel approximately 14’ by 14’ by 100’ long that became our only access for bringing manpower, equipment and materials in and out of the work area,” Hayden says.
Hayden says that building the tunnel itself wasn’t especially complicated. It was working with Butterball to limit disruption to business-critical areas that took the lion’s share of the prep work.
“The process of constructing the tunnel itself wasn’t terrible. It was defining where that tunnel was going to go so we didn’t have to remove a ton of Butterball’s equipment or remove major structural components of the building that took a lot of planning,” Hayden says. “In our ideal world, we would have constructed our tunnel 20 feet over from where we did and it would have allowed us more direct access inside and outside the building, but that would have required removing some pretty integral pieces of equipment to Butterball’s operations.”
During the tunnel’s construction, Hayden high demolition and saw cutting teams used wall saws and a Brokk 160 robot with hammer and grapple attachments to breach exterior walls and chart a path through one of the plant’s refrigeration rooms, making sure to avoid active ammonia systems that were recessed only inches away from the crew’s operations.
Due to the flash freezer’s -40 degree temperatures, high demolition torch crews had to erect partition walls to allow work areas to warm up.
While this work was taking place, Hayden teams simultaneously went about deconstructing the roof deck to allow for recycling and removal of the ammonia system in operation. They also performed steel walking torch demolition work to allow access for lifts and room for the high-reach excavator to be assembled.
Close quarters
With a tunnel in place and other obstructions removed, Hayden crews were ready to begin to make inroads tearing down the freezer.
However, taking down the 95-foot-tall structure was anything but business as usual.
“The unique challenges were safety and access—all work had to be completed within the footprint of the structure coming down, but we had zero access beyond the perimeter of the building,” Hayden says. “So we built this tunnel in order to get all the material and manpower in initially. Once we were in, we had to open up a small section of the building so we could get equipment in to make a bigger hole. And then once we had a bigger hole, we were able to bring our high-reach excavator in there.”
A Caterpillar 330D Ultra High Reach Demolition Excavator was partially disassembled to fit through the tunnel and was reassembled complete with a shear attachment at the site. Due to the tight quarters, the machine had to be disassembled and removed several times throughout the project to allow materials to be removed.
Adding to the challenge of the freezer demolition were the outside conditions. High winter wind gusts and rain made it more difficult for crews to torch the upper structure of the facility or maintain structural stability while work was being completed.
Once much of the material was able to be removed from the site, Hayden says that the pace of demolition picked up until the 95-foot freezer bay was completely demoed.
The final stages involved saw and demolition crews removing the remaining walls and structures that were left over from the demolition, as well as finalizing all recycling initiatives.
Keeping it clean
In addition to the restricted access, one of the main challenges with the demolition was trying to limit the disruption to Butterball’s workers and operations. This took a coordinated effort between Hayden, Butterball and ARCO to schedule demo work in a way that didn’t impede production.
“If we didn’t have the full cooperation of the plant owners and the general contractor we worked for, we would have had to shut down the plant operations from time to time and it would have really impacted our schedule,” Hayden says. “So by working with these folks, we were able to plan out week by week, day by day, what we were doing and give a good ‘heads up’ on what areas we needed to access to work efficiently and safely with the client.”
Being a food processing plant, limiting the amount of dust and debris the project produced was also top of mind for Hayden Wrecking. Because Butterball continued its operations throughout the demo process, Hayden had to be extra cautious in its preparations.
“We had operating food-grade facilities on three sides of us, so we had to maintain an exceptional level of cleanliness,” Copeland says. “This involved some pre-demolition preparations sealing up the perimeter of the work area with a combination of a temporary construction barriers and making the appropriate disconnects in advance of the main demolition work, as well as sealing these penetrations in advance. This required us to go into the active flash freezer and do concrete removal and electrical removal in -40 degree temperatures, which was not pleasant.”
Copeland says that Hayden Wrecking relied on its high-reach excavator to shear material rather than use torch cutting methods or grinding applications to prevent slag and metal shavings from interfering with Butterball’s work area.
Copeland also says that special dust control methods had to be used on this project. Because Hayden teams were working in a freezer, they had to capture and remove the water that was used for dust control so as not to allow it to get under floor slabs and crack the foundation once frozen. They also worked to remove the ice that accumulated from the water use in an efficient manner. This was paramount, as there was the potential for bacteria-laden poultry juices inside the freezer to contaminate the site if left to thaw once the freezer was disconnected.
Refrigerator recycling
In its entirety, the Butterball project took Hayden Wrecking’s 15-man crew 5,300 man hours to complete. In the end, 90 percent of materials were recycled, with ferrous and nonferrous metal, wood, plastic, Styrofoam, roof ballast and concrete being the main materials of focus.
Efficient recycling was especially important during this project, according to Copeland, since area recycling facilities were at capacity dealing with debris from the recent devastation caused by Hurricane Maria several months earlier.
According to Copeland:
Prior to the main demolition work, 200 tons of roofing ballast was removed by hand to prevent comingling with roof insulation. This material was stockpiled and reused in construction applications.
Stripped insulation from over 100 truckloads of concrete floor slab was a major point of emphasis in Hayden’s recycling efforts. Hayden also developed a methodology to recover 19,000 cubic feet of high-density foam insulation from the facility, diverting around 50 truckloads of material from landfill and saving the customer substantial cost in the process.
Hayden crushed more than 1,200 tons of concrete on site. On-site crushing allowed diversion of heavy trucking from off-site public recycling facilities which were taxed from the hurricane clean-up efforts. Once this concrete was crushed, it was stockpiled and used locally for road and ditch stabilization.
Ferrous scrap able to be recycled consisted of 800 tons of mixed painted clips, 200 tons of No. 2 heavy shreddable, and 200 tons of mixed unprepared No. 2.
Nonferrous metal recovery included 20,000 lbs of electric motors, 35,000 lbs of aluminum radiators, and 40,000 lbs of copper-bearing material.
Roughly 10,000 4’x5’ sheets of 1.25” marine plywood was recovered from the shelving system and donated to the community for recovery efforts.
Hayden Wrecking worked with Goldsboro Iron and Metal, Goldsboro, North Carolina, and Geomet Corp. to develop a strategy to recycle low-recovery insulated metal panels typically relegated to the landfill. This required close coordination between on-site Hayden staff, trucking dispatch and shredder operators. The recycling of these panels presented challenges due to low load density, transient dust and debris, and operational capacity considerations with shredding facilities being faced with hurricane clean-up materials. This successful coordination led to the diversion of over 100 loads of material from the local landfill, which was operating at capacity.
A plan perfected
Hayden credits Butterball and ARCO’s willingness to trust his team and listen to their input as a major factor in helping facilitate a successful project.
“This wasn’t a project where the general contractor and the owner had a plan in place of what they wanted done and how they wanted it completed,” Hayden says. “They came to us without a plan. They said, ‘Hey, we want this building down and out of here with minimal impact. How do we do this?’ So we went into this thing with a great comfort level with the customers where we felt it was a very collaborative process. To me, it set the stage for the rest of the project.”
Hayden says that being able to complete the job on time while still achieving key recycling benchmarks can be attributed to his team’s ability to craft an efficient strategy in the face of complicated conditions.
“This project was a tremendous success with zero injuries or incidents,” Hayden says. “Our biggest takeaways were the planning and the cooperation we had with the entire project team, including Butterball and ARCO, led to a smooth project. They valued planning, communication and cooperation over the bottom dollar and allowed us to be part of the process as early as possible to establish a quality strategy for all involved. This led to a very safe and efficient job when all was said and done.”
The author is the editor for Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine and can be contacted at aredling@gie.net.
Adam Redling
