Tear it down. Strip the metal out. Pulverize the concrete. Shred it. Shear it. Dice it up and get it out of here. Bring it all down and start over. The idea of a total demolition job may sound haphazard and uncontrolled – but large-scale dismantling firms like North American Dismantling Corp. have moved far beyond the days of just swinging away with a wrecking ball.

Coming soon: a blank slate

In Anderson, Indiana, a General Motors (GM) factory is being completely dismantled by North American Dismantling Corp. (NADC). It’s one continuous structure – nearly 2.5 million square feet – all under one roof. That’s an “m” as in million – and for North American Dismantling Corp. it’s really not that big at all.

It has to come down, and NADC will methodically, carefully and quickly take it down piece-by-selective-piece. Get the wrecking balls and plastic explosives out of your head. With NADC, it’s like micro surgery and the surgeons wear flannel and denim. Their instruments are not scalpels – but grapples, magnets, a fleet of 50-ton Volvo EC460B excavators armed with steel beam-snipping shears and a couple ultra high demolition machines.

“When we leave the site, you won’t know a factory was ever there,” claimed Dan Clark, Project Manager for the Anderson GM factory job. “It will be an empty field with top soil and planted grass. GM will have a blank slate to work with.” So there it is – this one will be a total demolition with complete concrete removal. Everything must go.

Like many facilities owned by a venerable, established company like GM, the Anderson facility has some history – and some years under its roof. The original structure was built in the early 1900s and subsequent additions were merely expanded outward – resulting in one, sprawling structure. The facility produced GM and Inland Fisher Guide parts, as well as machine guns during World War II. At one point the plant supplied 95 percent of all the exterior lighting (aside from headlights) used on GMC cars and light trucks.

Over the years, GM got a lot of mileage out of the facility and North American Dismantling seeks nearly as much mileage out of the demolition. “We recycle and reuse all that we can,” said Dan Clark. “We’ll salvage and sell all the non-ferrous metals. We sell the machinery and any reusable electrical equipment. We’ll remove and crush all the concrete on site and use a majority of it for backfill and land balancing. We’re using our Volvo EC460B excavators with shears to remove the steel and process it into mill-quality steel. We do most everything on site in an effort to reduce cost, time and transport. The more we recycle and resell the less waste that hits the landfill.”

Much of the work is handled by the company’s iron workhorse team of four Volvo EC460B excavators. The Volvo relationship started when NADC was in a bind to get a job done. Dave Sinay at Wolverine Tractor & Equipment Company gladly stepped in with Volvo. Wolverine delivered a rental EC460B to the site. NADC liked it so much they bought it. Then they bought three more – plus a halfdozen other Volvo machines.

“Wolverine rents specialized demolition machines equipped with highly specialized demolition attachments,” continued Sinay. “Most dealers can’t do that. North American Dismantling sees the value in that relationship and in Volvo. These machines have sophisticated auxiliary hydraulic plumbing that increases the efficiency of the tools they carry. Today, it is clearly the best in the industry. For NADC, I think they fit the bill perfectly.”

Choose your attachment, and dig in

NADC uses the Volvos with shear attachments to pick apart the building piece-by-piece. “It really is a very deliberate, methodical process,” added Finance Director Ivan Bain. “Our operators know right where to snip the trusses to take out the main support columns. They also need to know where not to cut. Safety is paramount.” With an OSHA EMR safety rating under 0.85 each of the last five years, it’s clear they practice what they preach.