 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. |
