The building was a five-story residential unit called Charlotte Town Manor, a poured concrete structure about 40 years old that stood tall against the banks of a tributary called Sugar Creek. But in four weeks, it was nothing. Reduced to tons of debris, the building ceased to exist and began a second life as recycled material. The Linda Construction Co. Inc. simply erased it, leaving hardly a trace after Mecklenburg County officials decided to create a greenway along the creek. The assisted living center had been empty for about a year, its 80,000 sq. ft. (7,432 sq m) of living space devoid of life. Its parking lot, which straddled the creek on a bridge-like structure, was empty. Its pool house was without function. Linda Construction was given a $350,000 contract to drop the building, rip up the bridge and clear the site. Tony Burkhart, operations manager of the company’s demolition division, oversaw the job. Burkhart systematically dismantled the building using a crew of 15 people and a few well-chosen pieces of heavy equipment. A Case 9050 hydraulic excavator was the key piece. The building was clad in precast concrete fascia panels about 50 ft. (15.2 m) tall and 4 ft. (1.2 m) wide. Because power lines running along Kings Drive were just 15 to 20 ft. (4.6 to 6 m) from the front of the building, stripping away the panels and letting them fall was not an option. The chances were too great that a panel would pivot right across the lines and take them down with it. Burkhart’s solution was to tie the panels to the concrete structure with cable, and then systematically break them into shorter pieces, using the bucket and thumb at the end of the hydraulic arm on the Case 9050. They were then dropped safely to the ground. Laid bare of its paneling — and cleared of a few pockets of asbestos material, as was expected in a structure of that era — the building then was weakened and tugged apart using the excavator, its long arm reaching up toward the upper floors and pulling them down. A Case CX240, which is a newer version of the 9040 excavator, was brought in to help demolish the structure. The debris was scooped up by a Caterpillar 953 tracked loader and dumped into a small fleet of trucks. Mack tandem dump trucks with 15-ft. (4.6 m) boxes carried away what couldn’t be loaded into 30-ft. (9.1 m) long trailers pulled by Peterbilt tractors. Case and Bobcat skid steer units fine-tuned the cleanup. About half of the concrete and metal debris was recycled. The company sells its reusable material to another firm dedicated full time to the recycling task. “The only complication we had,” Burkhart said of the project that began in late September and was completed in mid-November, “was the bridge.” The pre-cast concrete bridge with an asphalt deck spanned Sugar Creek. It measured approximately 300 ft. (91 m) long and 45 ft. (13.7 m) wide. The surface of the structure was used as a parking lot for the assisted living center. Burkhart hired a truck crane operator with a 150-ft. (46 m) boom unit to lift away the bridge. First stabilizing the structure, the crew then broke it into 45-ft. (13.7 m) segments using the Case 9050, with the crane lifting away each section for additional dismantling a safe distance from the waterway. The creek bed was disturbed little by the project. In the end, the embankments were left better than they were found: The contract required Linda to use erosion control material and techniques in final stages of site cleanup. Linda Construction as a rule has demolition crews busy all over the city. In the same weeks one of its crews was obliterating Charlotte Town Manor, other Linda crews were removing selected houses from properties in the Briar Creek Watershed. The county is clearing those areas to better accommodate future flood stages. As of mid-November, Linda crews had demolished 35 houses in five scattered sites. They ranged in size from modest 900-sq.-ft. (84 sq m) ranch homes to roomier 2,800-sq.-ft. (260 sq m) homes. Because the framed residential structures could be tumbled and scrapped easier than the concrete building on Sugar Creek, Burkhart had workmen using smaller equipment such as Case 9020, Kobelco 135 and Cat 312 excavators. At the height of the demolition, Linda had 18 crews removing structures around Charlotte. Burkhart credits his general superintendent, Robert Sanderson, with coordinating all the simultaneous activity. Burkhart is in his 30s, but age can be deceiving: He has been in the demolition business for about 20 years. He even recalls that, when he was seven years old, he helped his father dismantle some buildings back in his home state of Iowa. He joined Linda Construction about a year ago. The company was incorporated in 1986 by Linda Holden, its president. Gary Olnowich is vice president. The company is involved in various kinds of construction activity, but tearing down and removing structures is its bread and butter. “We do all kinds of demolition,” acknowledged Burkhart. The company’s dismantling work ranges from residences to multi-story industrial and commercial structures. Customers range from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to Charlotte Douglas International Airport to other contractors in the region who turn to Linda Construction for specialty removal work. Because the Charlotte metropolitan area straddles the North Carolina-South Carolina border, Linda Construction’s customers are in both states. For more information, visit www.lindaconstruction.net.This story also appears on Construction Equipment Guide.
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