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Concrete Cutting
& Breaking Sets New Pace at New York Aluminum Plant
What's your best record for concrete cutting? How many lineal
feet of concrete can you cut in one day? Concrete Cutting
& Breaking, Inc. - Albany, New York recently learned that
with a demanding schedule, top-notch operators, and the cooperation
and assistance of a capable general contractor, you can rise
to this challenge under even the most difficult of circumstances.
Morrison Knudsen, a large General
Contractor in the United States, performed hazardous waste
remediation work at Alcoa's Massena, New York plant. The goal
of this remediation work was to make the plant one of the
cleanest, most efficient, most environmentally-safe operations
of its kind. The overall budget for this project was $150
million.
Morrison Knudsen's on-site staff spent
the cold northern New York winters inside, performing value
engineering on the year's upcoming projects. Part of the 1997-98
value engineering effort involved a review of the means and
methods which would be used to remediate and upgrade a 60"
x 6,154' feet reinforced concrete pipe.
Morrison Knudsen was contracted to
expose and open the pipe to determine if damage had occured
over the years. Hazardous waste that may have accumulated
on the interior pipe walls was to be removed and a durable
"sleeve" through the entire pipe length would be
installed. In order to accomplish this, MK would have to get
inside the pipe.
MK also determined that the most logical
means of accessing the pipe's interior would be to sawcut
a "cap" off the top of the pipe. The outside diameter
of the pipe was 72", with an interior diameter of 60".
Looking at the entrance of the pipe as if it were a clock,
the decision was made to cut through the entire length of
the pipe at the ten o'clock and two o'clock locations.
Several concrete cutting contractors
were contacted and asked to provide cost estimates to cut
the pipe in the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock positions. CCB was
selected based on their outstanding safety record and sound
experience profile.
While the biding process was ongoing,
Morrison Kundsen's field crews were experimenting with a walk
behind saw and platform. This methodology proved to be quite
effective although the working conditions were difficult.
Concrete Cutting & Breaking reviewed
the project requirements with the MK officials. Even though
the Alcoa plant was 200 miles away from the office, the company
dispatched two trucks with equipment and three of CCB's best
operators to the job site.
MK's Project Managers had allotted
eleven working days for this portion of the project, but CCB
would only need eight days to complete their work. In the
end, wall sawing proved to be the most efficient and safest
means of cutting through the 6" thick concrete pipe.
CCB's operators made the two cuts through the pipe, at the
prescribed locations, down the entire length of the pipe resulting
in a total of 5,000 lineal feet of precision cutting. At 15-foot
increments, the operators used hand saws to make cross cuts
that allowed MK to remove the concrete cap in manageable segments
and gain access to the interior of the pipe. Nearly 1,000
lineal feet of hand sawing was performed to make the cross
cuts.
The outstanding efforts from the MK
crew with the walk behind saw as well as the remarkable efforts
from the CCB crew on the wall saw resulted in the completion
of the task for $70,000. This resulted in a projected savings
to Alcoa of $70,000 while minimizing the risks associated
with the difficult ergonomic conditions of the closed top
pipe.
The section of open top pipe received
its 36" HDPE slip lining and was ready for its flowable
fill encapsulation. The success on the concrete cutting phase
of this project was a key element of the project's ongoing
success.
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