November 23, 2011

AIM GROUP

AIM Environmental Group is responsible for the demolition and environmental abatement of Facebook’s new offices in Kitchener, Ont.

FEATURE | Demolition & Environmental Engineering

Remediation key for Facebook’s new Kitchener, Ontario home

PETER KENTER

correspondent

Kitchener continues to be a Canadian high-tech hub, so it’s no surprise that Facebook is planning a major presence a stone’s throw from the city’s downtown Google offices. The job of selective demolition and environmental abatement on the office site was awarded to the demolition unit of AIM Environmental Group of Stoney Creek, on behalf of client and project manager Zehr Kalman Levesque.

“The site consists of a block of buildings all interlocked, ranging from structures built in the 1930s up until the 1970s,” says Tony D’Angelo, general manager of operations with AIM. “What we were asked to do is to environmentally remediate the building and create three swaths right through the building, then prepare the structure for small outdoor courtyards that will be built inside the block of buildings. We also had to carve a lane way between buildings to access a new parking facility.”

The environmental remediation portion of the contract reflected the multiple uses of the building over 80 years.

“This building had 18 underground storage tanks. Some of them were empty, some of them were leaking and of those that were full, each of them had a different chemical inside them,” says D’Angelo. “That’s a considerable safety concern, because you can’t have a vac truck come in and begin to mix the chemicals as they’re being removed. Each tank has to be considered separately.”

Contaminated soil was removed and remediated. The company also removed asbestos fireproofing, PCB ballasts and mercury light bulbs.

The building hugs the sidewalk frequently used by pedestrians. A CN commercial/commuter rail line operates three metres away from one side of the property.

“Railway negotiations require very specific permitting,” says D’Angelo. “We would shut down the job at one end of the building during rail rush hour at about 7:00 in the morning, and shift work to another part of the building. We also hoarded off the sidewalk and temporarily redirected foot traffic across the street.”

The demolition began with the company’s latest equipment acquisition, a Volvo 460 high-reach demolition excavator with a 10-storey capability.

“Aaron Sterk, our estimator, and I had both sat in one at the National Demolition Association show in Las Vegas,” says D’Angelo. “This unit has all the bells and whistles from a fire hose to keep dust down, to a video camera for close-up shots, so the operator can observe work while nipping and shearing. It also has a quick-pin release that allows us to change tools in under an hour, instead of half a day, which is typical changeover time.”

AIM purchased the unit, realizing it would help them to pre-qualify for a considerable number of contracts. D’Angelo says the equipment helped them to net a contract requiring high-reach capabilities for NOVA Chemicals in Sarnia. The company’s high-reach was also recently used to demolish Hamilton’s Federal Building for developer Darko Vranich.

In Kitchener, the high-reach was used to remove HVAC and exhaust systems from the building’s roof and crane the demolition material safely to the ground in close quarters.

“We carefully planned the interior demolition sequence under engineering guidance and there was a lot of shoring and trussing involved to get the job done safely,” says Sterk. “Through some tricky maneuvering we were able to take an excavator through one of the arches and move it inside the building,”

The excavator carefully cut through steel, concrete block, fieldstone and quadruple-thick brick walls, carefully preserving the best materials for additional interior construction following the demolition exercise.

The job was completed safely in four months spanning the summer, with anywhere from five to 20 workers committed to the project at any one time.

“We haven’t lost a man-day through work-related injuries in more than 20 years,” says D’Angelo. “That record remains intact.”

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