The second annual demonstration allowed attendees test and operate a variety of demolition equipment.
Epiroc, Commerce City, Colorado, showcased several of its hydraulic attachments in the National Demolition Association (NDA) Live DEMOlition Event at the Demolition Rockies convention March 23 in Aurora, Colorado.
The second annual hands-on demonstration event offered attendees the opportunity to test and operate a variety of demolition equipment. Epiroc hydraulic attachments featured in the demo included:
Epiroc says its bulk pulverizers enable clean separation of rebar and concrete and are designed to pick up demolished material from a pile. The pulverizer has optional 360-degree endless hydraulic rotation, which Epiroc says allows for optimal positioning and precise handling. The carrier weight class of the BP 2050 bulk pulverizer is 39,500 to 59,500 pounds.
Designed for carriers in the weight class of 55,000 to 88,000 pounds, the CC 3100 U concrete cutter is suitable for most primary demolition work. The universal jaw version is ideal for light- to medium-duty building demolition and heavy-duty industrial demolition.
Ideal for primary blast-free rock excavation and secondary rock breaking on construction sites and in quarries, surface and underground mines, the Epiroc HB 2000 hydraulic breaker features a design that makes it suitable for the toughest jobs. Equipped with the patented and fully automated Intelligent Protection System (IPS), the HB 2000 is suitable for carriers in 48,500-to 84,000-pound weight class.
Grapples are universal tools for demolition, sorting and loading all kind of materials. The MG 1500 Multi Grapple is equipped with a hydraulic rotator to ease in picking, sorting and positioning of the material being picked up or set into place. It is designed for carriers in the 35,500- to 53,000-pound weight class.
Epiroc SB hydraulic breakers are suited for demolishing light concrete structures and asphalt pavements. They come standard with an integrated water port for dust suppression to enhance operator safety and to assist in compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) final silica rule regulations. The SB 202 breaker is designed for the 5,500-to 13,000-pound carrier weight class.
Featuring an integrated pressure relief valve to protect against overloads, the SB 702 hydraulic breaker is optimal for working in confined spaces such as inside buildings, along walls or in narrow trenches. The carrier weight class of the SB 702 is 22,000 to 37,500 pounds.
Hydraulic shears are ideal for cutting steel structures at demolition sites or recycling metal girders, sheets and cables at scrap yards. The SC 6200 shear is ideal for carriers of 110,000 to 165,000 pounds stick-mounted and 66,000 to 121,000 pounds boom-mounted.
“Working with the right hydraulic attachments is critical to success in the demolition industry,” says Mila Armer, the marketing communications manager for Epiroc, in a news release. “We were excited to offer contractors at NDA an opportunity to experience the productivity, efficiency and safety advantages of our equipment in a real job-site environment.”
To watch a video of Epiroc hydraulic attachments in action at the Live DEMOlition Event, visit the Epiroc Group YouTube page.
Epiroc hydraulic attachments are supported by the North American Competence Center in Independence, Ohio. The facility combines a customer center, repair shop and configuration center, and parts and supplies warehouse with a team focused solely on hydraulic attachments to support the U.S. and Canadian attachments market.
The company unveiled its multiyear strategic growth plan during its investor strategy day.
Rye, New York-based Sims Metal Management recently unveiled its multiyear strategic growth plan during its investor strategy day April 8.
Sims’ executive leadership team shared plans to drive growth through 2025, which include expanding within the company’s existing metals and e-recycling businesses and establishing new businesses that will reduce waste and produce renewable energy.
“Sims Metal Management is strongly positioned to become a global leader in the circular economy, acting as responsible stewards for the environment,” says Alistair Field, the group chief executive officer and managing director, in a news release. “Innovation and our long-standing focus on providing better solutions in recycling will fuel our success.”
Field shared plans for each of its business units and highlighted key priorities.
New business goals that Field shared include:
During the event, Field also shared goals to continue advocating for change and new solutions in partnership with other recycling companies through participation in industry groups, such as the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), among others.
During the investor strategy day, Field also reflected on the improvements Sims has made over the years. The company celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2017.
In the news release, Sims says it advanced new and improved technology across its offerings around the world. Capital was spent on growth investments and key partnerships to fuel constant innovation.
Technology improvements were made across all of its existing sectors, including:
Sims says it attributes its success to the commitment and drive of its more than 5,000 employees. Field says that celebrating current employees and attracting purpose-driven talent will be ongoing priorities.
The company has also instituted a number of initiatives to strengthen its culture, including an organizational capability review, the Respect and Inclusion educational series and the Women Working @ Sims employee resource group to cultivate top industry leadership. Sims says its goal is to become the employer of choice in the environmental sector.
A webcast of the investor presentation from Monday, April 8, can be accessed here.
Davis served on the company’s board of directors since 2001.
Robert Davis, a member of Toronto-based Waste Connections Inc.’s board of directors, died April 6.
Davis brought more than 40 years of experience in the solid waste and recycling industries to the company’s board, including executive roles with Browning-Ferris Industries Inc. (BFI), Fibres International, Garden State Paper Company and SCS Engineers.
"We are deeply saddened by Bob's passing and, on behalf of the entire Waste Connections team, we extend our deepest sympathies to his family and friends," Waste Connections President Worthing Jackman says. "Bob was a truly remarkable individual and he will be greatly missed by all those who had the pleasure to know him."
Davis served on Waste Connection’s board of directors since 2001.
Waste Connections is an integrated solid waste services company that provides non-hazardous waste collection, transfer, disposal and recycling services in mostly exclusive and secondary markets in the United States and Canada. The company serves more than six-million residential, commercial, industrial and exploration and production customers in 41 states in the U.S., as well as six provinces in Canada.
The Loadrite L3180 SmartScale uses weighing intelligence and solid-state sensors for more accurate and faster loading, the companies say.
Trimble, Sunnyvale, California, and Doosan Infracore North America LLC, Suwanee, Georgia, have announced the availability of the Trimble Loadrite L3180 SmartScale as an option on Doosan wheel loaders.
The Loadrite L3180 SmartScale uses weighing intelligence and solid-state sensors for more accurate and faster loading, the companies say. It also connects machines and devices for the collection and syncing of data via the built-in WiFi to InsightHQ reporting portal. InsightHQ consolidates live operational information from Trimble Loadrite devices on loaders, excavators and conveyors across the site to provide near real-time productivity and performance reports for extraction, processing and load-out operations.
Reengineered from the ground up, Trimble's loader scale platform features smarter weighing, smarter data management and a smarter interface, according to the company. Intelligence in the weighing software and new hardware also have been designed to give operators the ability to load the machine faster and more productively.
“Our Doosan wheel loader customers will benefit greatly from the new option, helping them do their work more precisely to improve their overall productivity,” Bill Zak, wheel loader product specialist at Doosan Infracore North America, says. “This type of technology demonstrates our ongoing commitment to provide our Doosan dealers and customers with state-of-the-art equipment options.”
“With Trimble and Doosan working together, we make the ordering process easier for our contractors and aggregate producers,” Johan Smet, general manager of Trimble’s aggregates division, says. “Trimble Loadrite onboard weighing technology on Doosan loaders helps our customers move more material each day.”
The program taking place across Michigan has faced criminal probing since 2015.
Two Detroit representatives in Congress recently sent Michigan officials a letter urging greater oversight of the state’s federally funded demolition program.
The program, which is taking place in cities across the state, including Detroit and Flint, has faced years of criminal probing since it came under scrutiny in 2015 over concerns about bidding practices and rising costs.
A set price program for the property demolitions that was put in place in 2014 was a core issue of the investigation. The city was looking for contractors that could demo 800 properties within two months. Three of the four local demolition contractors participating in negotiations before the public bidding period—Adamo Group, Homrich and MCM Demolition—were the only companies that bid on the work after the public bid period. They were ultimately awarded the contracts. Bierlien was the other company involved in the meetings.
The investigation looked into whether the city engaged in fraud or corruption by holding the meetings with these contractors.
January presented the program’s latest saga of issues, when the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) issued subpoenas seeking two years’ worth of documentation from certain contractors over dirt used to fill holes, according to the Detroit News. As reports of potentially contaminated soil have surfaced, the inspector demanded demolition firms produce records to confirm where their backfill dirt was coming from, who trucked it to sites in Detroit and where it was being dropped off.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan defended the city, saying that no city agency has been subpoenaed over the dirt and officials cooperated with every investigation, the Detroit News reports.
In their letter to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Michigan State Housing Development Authority, Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Brenda Lawrence, both Democrats, outline their concerns over the statewide program, which is being financed primarily by the Hardest Hit Fund.
“The potential use of contaminated and unverified sources of dirt being used to fill these demolition sites presents an alarming lack of oversight that could have public health ramifications for thousands of Michiganders,” the letter says. “Unfortunately, recent reporting indicates that the Blight Elimination Program is not functioning the way it should.”
In November of 2017, SIGTARP released a report outlining the concerns it had with the Blight Elimination Program, which focused on the risk of asbestos exposure, illegal dumping and contaminated soil from demolitions in Flint and other cities. SIGTARP worked with the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct field inspections of multiple properties in various stages of demolition, where they found “a disturbing lack of oversight done by state authorities in Flint regarding this program,” the letter states.
Their investigation uncovered five main findings, “which illustrate the grave lack of oversight,” according to the letter. Those were:
The letter continues to request the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality provide an update on the oversight it has conducted on the Blight Elimination Program across the state.
A spokeswoman for the Michigan State Housing Development Authority told the Detroit News that the agency has taken recent health and safety concerns seriously by implementing additional protections, which include increased site inspections, more contractor training and dirt testing.
The program has resulted in the demolition of more than 11,000 houses in Wayne County alone.