By Toby Duane

A well deserved congratulations to the EDA and Lindsay Gale of D&Ri magazine for the first annual demolition summit recently held at the Hotel Okura in Amsterdam on November 5-6, 2009. This unique ceremony which focused on innovative people and projects brought international demolition contractors and suppliers together in a relaxed environment that exemplified the best the demolition industry offers in safety, innovation and environmental consciousness. The conference, highlighted by an awards ceremony, had a day of speakers and fascinating project case studies. Based on the reception by those in attendance, it’s a good bet that there will be a second conference.

Among the speakers was Giuseppe Fiore of Despe, a major demolition firm from Italy who was the lead for his firm on the dismantling of a nuclear facility in Alessandria in Northern Italy. Fiore presented a verbal and visual tour of the projects innovations and challenges. John Woodward, a safety expert from England, really drove home the importance of safety, training and the long term costs and implications of ignoring the benefits of safety and reinforcing training and the training budgets despite these difficult economic times. Woodward presented strong antidotal evidence of the many safety trappings involved in today’s heightened regulatory environment.

One of America’s demolition leaders, Brandenburg was represented by Bill Moore, vice president of Brandenburg Industrial Services. Moore’s speech featured some great insights into his experience from environmental issues to recycling safety and where the name Brandenburg comes from. Other areas of focus from Moore’s speech included some of the innovations that Brandenburg makes to their own equipment for both ease of operation and safety. For larger companies it was a motivation on what they can do to improve their operations, to smaller firms an inspiration to what they can become. Among the most interesting aspects of Brandenburg’s firm is the design of their own dump trailers, containers and the design and construction of 50 of their own “gondola” rail cars for scrap, an amazing investment in both capital and commitment. By the way Brandenburg was named as such by Tom Little who felt the name “Little Demolition Company” wasn’t good enough and named it Brandenburg after Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto.”

Other speakers featured the difficulties of dealing with unqualified competition, PCB regulations and collaboration between design firms that make specialty long reach booms (Rusch and Kocurek, two major European boom manufacturers) and the contributions they have made to the execution of projects in Europe. These presentations displayed the positive end results of teamwork while highlighting to an American, me, the huge presence of long reach booms in Europe and their future here in America. The European firm Rusch designed a boom capable of reaching 90 m and developed and designed a boom for AF DECOM of Norway whose business includes the demolition and removal of off shore oil platforms. There presentation was given by Frank DeVries of Rusch and Alf Ragnar Sorenes of AF DECOM-

The presentation highlighted the fully integrated services of AF DECOM and the unique challenges in moving and dismantling these monstrous symbols of the modern industrial age.

One of the most unique presentations was by Jim O’Sullivan and Dave Rowe of UK demolition giant Keltbray. The project highlighted was the demolition of a block of buildings in downtown London known as 20 Fenchurch Street. This project featured two eight-story buildings and the focus of the presentation a 22-story building that was demolished from the bottom up using a complex lifting and working platform. The complexity of the project was lost on nobody who witnessed the incredible video and verbal presentation. There was a great amount of engineering and pre-planning involved and would have tested any demolition company’s patience. Among the features in this project was 200 tons of steel fabrication for a work platform and thousands of hours of engineering. In addition to the demolition, Keltbray also performed scaffolding design and erection, soft gut and hazardous waste abatement.

After a day of presentations the group came together for the Summit’s highlight, the Demolition Awards. Winning for best demolition project was Keltbray for the project mentioned above. Honorable mention went to Carl Bolander for their work on I-35w bridge collapse in Minnesota. While Keltbray’s was beyond unique the Bolander project highlighted the importance and daily significance well trained and equipped demolition firms and workers can be to aiding and easing a communities strain during times of natural and unnatural disasters.

The safety award went to DH Griffin Demolition, Texas. This award was accepted on their behalf of Griffin by Bill Moore. Griffins commitment to safety while working on some of the countries most challenging demolition projects is a testament to their countrywide dedication to raising the bar on safety in the demolition industry. William & David Sinclair’s company Safedom won for best implosion company.

Another highlighted award was the Demolition and Recycling Environmental Award. This award was won by Costello Dismantling of Middleboro, Mass., for its work on a mixed use industrial site where Costello recycled 98% of the building materials. Unlike most demolition projects where the visual is often greater than the intellectual aspects Costello’s award was won by its strong written presentation to the judges. This project highlighted the Costello teams dedication to pre-planning and follow through from demolition, dismantling and salvage to sales of the material. While this project has garnered much local, national and now international recognition, its lessons can’t be lost on all demolition contractors large and small as LEED projects and stricter governmental oversight on dumping and recycling increase