After the fall
By Chris Thompson
When disaster
strikes, general contractors turn to demolition crews to pick
up the pieces and get the project back on its feet.
"Once
steel falls and becomes a twisted mass there are a lot of forces
at work, and a general contractor doesn't always know where to
make the right cut," Fred Runde, owner of First Capitol
Demolition Inc. in Belmont, said. "They put things up, they
don't tear them down. I love taking things down, and I can make
a structure disappear pretty fast, but I'm not much of a carpenter."
When Big
Blue collapsed onto the Miller Park structure last summer, Brandenburg
Industrial Service Co. in Chicago mobilized its enormous work
force and fleet of equipment to handle the aftermath of the disaster.
Bill Moore,
commercial services director for Brandenburg, said general contractors
will typically try to handle the cleanup after a disaster, but
Brandenburg took the job based on the grand scale of the crane
collapse and the company's specialty in steel recycling.
"We're
not noted as a disaster specialty company, it's just that we
have so many resources, and we've done a couple of rescues and
fires for Chicago," he said. "We cleaned up a Chicago
Transit Authority fire when a train shed burned right next to
a live track. The city estimated the CTA would be down for a
week, and we had it up in 48 hours."
The right tools
Demolition
crews also offer specialized equipment and detailed structural
knowledge that some general contractors might lack. The companies
regularly use powerful excavators with super-long boom arms and
specialized grapples, shears or hammers as well as concrete pulverizers.
The specialized
tools keep demolition crews out of harm's way while their understanding
of the progression of deconstruction allows them to clean up
after a disaster without creating a larger mess, Glen Martin,
owner of Statewide Razing in Greenleaf, said.
"We
have personal knowledge that if you cut this portion, this other
portion will fall," he said. "It is dangerous. Say
you have a twisted I-beam with a certain amount of stress on
it. The average Joe isn't going to know how to relieve that stress
without killing himself, because when you cut the beam, something
is going to spring loose."
The same
can be said about any aspect of cleanup whether it deals with
steel or concrete, Michael Taylor, executive director of the
National Association of Demolition Contractors, said.
"You
could have a circumstance where there is pre-stressed or post-tension
concrete with incredible load-bearing capabilities," he
said. "If you release that power in the wrong way, you can
do a lot of damage to yourself or those around you. These skills
are based on years and years of experience. There are no classes
that teach this, they're just skills developed in the trenches."
Brandenburg
had the size and equipment to handle the Miller Park disaster,
but the knowledge is common within the demolition industry.
"Disaster
cleanup requires a very highly sophisticated level of expertise,"
Taylor said. "Miller Park represented an opportunity for
Brandenburg because the company could quickly mobilize massive
resources, but that's not unique within the industry. It's just
a specialized trade with specific equipment."
"It's
a great way to make a living, it's fun and these guys like the
chalenge," he said. "The more difficult the project
is, the more they eat it up. The industry has an attitude of,
'Tell us a problem and we'll see if we can fix it.' "
Entrepreneurs
with power
That attitude
has spurred the demolition industry to grow from sledgehammers
and wrecking balls to asbestos removal, rigging companies and
industrial recycling. Rather than turning down jobs for lack
of knowledge or equipment, Taylor said many companies adjust
their approach to fit the job.
He said
when Brandenburg completed demolition of the Navy Pier in Chicago
a few years ago, the company agreed to place pilings for the
expansion of the pier.
"At
the time, Brandenburg didn't have a pile driver, but it took
on the project anyway and now offers pile driving as part of
its repertoire," Taylor said. "If nothing else, we
are entrepreneurial in nature."
The high
level of training, flexibility and the wide variety of equipment
are especially vital when the disaster cleanup coincides with
an investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
or police. The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building
in Oklahoma City created a unique situation for Ben Cates, whose
local demolition company, Midwest Wrecking Co., was the first
on the scene to conduct the cleanup, Taylor said.
"The
first priority was to save lives, and that determined the type
of equipment, but there was an investigation into the bombing
at the same time, so he had to preserve the evidence," he
said. "They also had to preserve the structural integrity
of the building so it wouldn't collapse on any survivors or the
equipment. It can be a complicated process."
It's also
a process that many smaller demolition companies tend to avoid,
Martin said.
"These
are terrible situations where the owners often want to save a
part of the structure, but you never know what you will find
until you get in there," he said. "A wax factory burned
down in Oshkosh several years ago. The owners wanted us to save
part of it, but it started on fire again while we were doing
the cleanup. I shy away from these jobs, because you're doing
work for people who don't want you there in the first place and
they're just pissed off."
Martin
said he generally gets the call for disaster clean-up projects
from insurance companies or municipalities. He said the work
is not just a matter of going in and clearing away all the debris.
"It
takes certain business smarts," he said. "Take Miller
Park for example. It's not all just trash. You have to create
the best value. You can just haul it all, but you won't be in
business for long."
