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 chairsmissing
 
Gender: Male
 |  |  | Murray Demolition Article in today's Star...
< on 8/4/2007 5:47 PM >
|  | | | http://www.thestar.com/article/241916
Shawn Murray, of Murray Demolition, checks a North York site, which has been cleared to make way for at least 20 condo towers that Concord Adex Investments plans to build.
The rubble rousers
Cristina da Silva
Special to the Star
If what goes up really must come down, the Provenzano brothers should never be out of work. In fact, their company, Progreen Demolition, is particularly busy these days because lots of GTA buildings must be demolished before new ones can be built.
Destruction before construction – it's the little-known side of the condominium building boom that has seen 17,000 units added to Toronto's downtown skyline in the past five years, according to a recent city planning department bulletin. Most of the growth has come on just 3 per cent of the land in an area bounded by Bloor St., the lake, Bathurst St. and the Don Valley Parkway.
"From a demolition point of view, the rush is when you are working on the tower (of a building)," says Progreen president Paolo Provenzano, who runs the company with three brothers.
"Once it's down and it's cleaned up and the client is happy and we're happy, it ends."
But the business of "unbuilding" isn't just booming these days, it's becoming more complicated.
"Demolition sites need remediation all the time," says Provenzano, adding that the main contaminants are hydrocarbons and lead.
"It's a small industry in Canada," says Chito Valdez, a senior project manager at Greenspoon Specialty Contracting in Brampton, "There are only three big demolition companies that can take on the big jobs: us, Murray Demolition and Priestly."
Demolition companies may be small in numbers, but not in revenue generated. Most of their revenue comes from the industrial, commercial and institutional (IC&I) sector.
"The housing boom hasn't added too much to our bottom line," Valdez says. "Out of the $27 million we made this year, only $7 million came from Toronto. The other $20 million came from a contract to demolish a car manufacturing facility in Oshawa."
Provenzano (Progreen) and Shawn Murray (CEO of Murray Demolition) also maintain that they made most of their revenue from the IC&I sector.
"We are doing very well," Murray says. "We are the largest demolition company in Canada, with over $200 million in revenue per year (total income), 400 employees, and offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto. We won the two-year contract to demolish Mississauga's Lakeview Generation Plant (including the "Four Sisters" smokestacks), the largest contract in Canada to date.
"Right now, we have over 30 demolition jobs, including the Canadian Tire distribution centre (Sheppard Ave. and Leslie St.) for Concord." Vancouver-based Concord Adex Investments plans to build at least 20 condominium towers on the site. Recycling contributes to the company coffers too, notes Murray. On average, recycling allows him to recoup 20 to 25 per cent of a job's cost.
Priestly Demolition – a family-run 36-year-old demolition business operating mostly in Ontario – was awarded one of Canada's largest demolition contracts: $21 million for bringing down Toronto Airport Terminal 1 in 2004. Again, most of its revenue comes from the IC&I sector, not housing.
The large capital outlay for specialized demolition equipment didn't deter Provenzano, from entering the demolition business. For the past 25 years, the family-owned company was in the excavating business in the GTA. Four years ago, Paolo and his brothers decided to break into the demolition industry.
"There isn't much competition in the field because of the high initial cost of going into business," Provenzano says. "I was up for a challenge, and decided to invest in new equipment (up to $10 million worth) and new experiences. We are a young and aggressive company who likes to work, and we go after the work. We have tripled our sales from the first year."
Last year, Progreen Demolition was involved in the destruction of the Fleet St. Molson brewery to make way for Plazacorp's West Harbour City condo development. The company diverted almost 80 per cent of material from the former brewery, which spanned a city block. Some of the reclaimed material, including brick, steel girders and copper piping, went to recycling companies, while the rest will be used in on-site construction.
Demolition can be loud and dusty and that's what gets public attention. But the public is only seeing the final stages of demolition: the implosions (used only 1 per cent of the time), the hydraulic excavators with specialized attachments, and bulldozers and trucks removing the rubble. "We operate within noise bylaws," says Murray, "and we keep the concrete dust down by using as much water spray as possible. Our main concern is keeping the site secure and safe; this means keeping curious people out and having overhead protection from falling debris."
Setting the stage for final demolition requires a raft of experts and machinery:
Engineers review the structure of the building;
Environmental consultants assess the site for hazardous materials in the building as well as below-ground contaminants;
Demolition workers remove hazardous material such as asbestos, ozone-depleting substances (CFCs), PCB, glycol, lead, mercury, silica and guano;
Demolition workers remove salvageable material (such as fire doors, fire systems, hoses and air conditioners);
Heavy equipment operators come in with their machines to break down the building and rip up the foundations;
Concrete and brick may be crushed and processed on-site for backfill for new building;
Other building materials are sorted for reuse or recycling;
Excavators come in and backfill any gaping holes left after demolition.
Demolition and site preparation for a new building takes time and it varies, depending on the type of structure and how it was used. For example, it takes an hour to demolish a single-family dwelling, and two more days to remove the debris and prepare the site.
Commercial buildings involve more time. It took Progreen 10 days to demolish five two-storey commercial buildings, remediate the soil, recycle the concrete for backfill, and prepare the site for a new condo. Larger industrial projects like the Toronto Lakeview Generation Plant will take two years (including fixing up the site) for Murray Demolition to complete.
Over the years, with improved safety procedures and equipment in place, demolition has become safer.
In 2000, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSI found seven demolition workers were injured for every 100 workers, compared with 3 1/2 per 100 workers in all Ontario businesses combined. By 2005 the number of injuries in demolition had dropped to five, whereas overall injuries in all businesses dropped to three.
But demolition will always be risky.
"You're inheriting a building that you don't know exactly how it was built," Provenzano says. "Even an engineer won't detect the problems. The best (and safest) way is to take your time dismantling the building."
WSIB, which takes into account various factors such as injury frequency and average cost per claim to calculate its insurance rates, puts the demolition workers at the top of the heap within the construction industry (2007 premium rates are $16.02 for every $100 of insurable earning compared to the construction average of $6.09). Even roofing workers are insured at a lower rate ($12.98).
Demolition has come a long way from its humble beginnings in the brute force of a sledge hammer and wrecking ball, to elegantly-thought-out procedures and specialized equipment.
Author Jeff Byles' book, Rubble: Unearthing the History of Demolition expounds on the complexity of today's demolition expert who has the expertise of "a lawyer, an environmental scientist, an industrial hygienist, a hydrogeologist, a safety engineer and human resources expert."
And even if most demolition contractors aren't sentimental about the sites they have demolished, recycled and decontaminated, Toronto's housing developers, builders and residents owe them a debt of gratitude. They give us the space to grow.
http://www.heremydear.com |
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rainman8889
Location: H.T.S.F.C. Time to gain and a time to lose.
Bye for now.
| | Re: Murray Demolition Article in today's Star...
<Reply # 1 on 8/5/2007 8:05 PM >
| | | | Pretty cool.
And that's coming from the guys who had to stop for a while during the demolition at Whitby Psych because of all the dust they threw up.
Here's a link:
http://www.uer.ca/...d=1&threadid=22946
[last edit 8/5/2007 8:07 PM by rainman8889 - edited 1 times]
Gone for a while. Be back when I'm back. |
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videonerd
  
| | Re: Murray Demolition Article in today's Star...
<Reply # 2 on 8/10/2007 6:56 AM >
| | | | Posted by chairsmissing
...Our main concern is keeping the site secure and safe; this means keeping curious people out and having overhead protection from falling debris."
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That's RIGHT people... it's to keep curious people OUT. Got that!? Good.
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Air
 
Location: Canada
| | Re: Murray Demolition Article in today's Star...
<Reply # 3 on 8/11/2007 11:25 PM >
| | | | Posted by videonerd
That's RIGHT people... it's to keep curious people OUT. Got that!? Good.
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Thx for that post.
A few days ago we went to shoot what was left of molson's. They had a guy sitting in between the debris pile. The building was almost gone, and it was odd to see. I figured he was there to keep an eye on the equipment, but he was indeed gone the next day when the building was too, even though the rubble and equipment were still there.
[last edit 8/11/2007 11:26 PM by Air - edited 1 times]
"The extraordinary beauty of things that fail." - Heinrich von Kleist |
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