Abitibi Consolidated – Demolition

PROJECT DETAILS

Abitibi Consolidated owns and operates a papermill near Snowflake, Arizona.  Built in the early 1960’s this papermill processed wood into pulp and manufactured paper for use nationwide.

The paper mill changed ownership from its original builders.  As the years progressed, more emphasis has been placed on recycling of paper rather than the manufacture of new.  The United States Government subsidizes recycling to a large degree in order to preserve our forests and woodlands.

Abitibi Consolidated recently took over ownership of the Snowflake Plant and part of the terms of the sale was that the plant would be operated as a 100% recycled paper mill.  All of the equipment inside the plant that processed raw wood products into paper had to be removed.

Louisiana Chemical Dismantling was contracted to remove this portion of the Abitibi Consolidated Paper mill and has been working inside the operational plant for several months.  Part of the scope of work was to demolish and remove some large reinforced concrete rotary kiln foundations.  These foundations were located inside the operational facility and had to be removed without disturbing any of the surrounding manufacturing processes within the plant.   Some of the operational plant equipment was so close that the foundations had to be “Demolished in Place.”

Louisiana Chemical Dismantling contracted with Dykon Blasting to assist them with the tricky explosive demolition of these concrete foundations.  Dykon Blasting arrived onsite on October 2, 2000 and began preparing the foundations for explosive demolition

Blasting is not an everyday occurrence within an operational manufacturing facility.  Coordination of the demolition and routine plant activities had to be arranged so that both operations could be unaffected by the activities of the other.  Safety was the top priority.  The foundations would have to be covered for the blasting to protect nearby lives and property within the plant.  Personnel working inside the plant had to be made aware of the impending blasts and the work zone around the foundations had to be barricaded off to prevent access of people into the blast area while the demolition work was taking place.

The drilling of the blast holes into all eight of the concrete foundations for placement of the explosives took three days to finish.  On the fourth day, the number 5 foundation was blasted.   A foundation within the center of the eight was chosen to blast first because it was surrounded by the rest and by doing so, Dykon took advantage of the additional protection provided by the other foundations which would be demolished later.

All eight foundations were loaded, covered and shot in three days.  The entire project took 6 days to complete.  No blasting project like this one can be successful without the cooperation and teamwork of everybody involved.  Louisiana Chemical Dismantling and the Abitibi Plant personnel worked exhaustively with us towards that end and we appreciated their efforts greatly.   It’s an awesome sight to behold when everybody works together to get the job done and this project was a perfect example of that.   A world of thanks goes out from Dykon to Louisiana Chemical Dismantling and Abitibi Consolidated for their professional cooperation on the successful completion of the explosive demolition of the reinforced concrete piers inside the Snowflake Paper mill.