The take down: compact equipment tears apart a nine-story parking facility.

Demolishing an airport terminal and a nine-story concrete parking garage could be considered quite a feat for any demolition contractor. Imagine trying to remove one located at Canada's busiest airport while maintaining a regular schedule of flights at the nearby terminal.

That is exactly what has been happening since April 2005 at the Toronto Pearson International Airport. A fleet of compact equipment from Priestly Demolition Inc.--an Aurora, Ontario-based company--has been tearing down the old parking facility adjacent to the previous Terminal 1, or "TI" as it has been coined by locals. Demolition of the airport parking structure is just a piece in a much larger project that involves re-constructing the airport from the ground up.

The process for demolishing this structure could probably have been done with much bigger and more powerful equipment--even an implosion to bring the building to the ground. But according to Ryan Priestly, an employee of Priestly Demolition, it was not that simple.

Daily operations at the airport, coupled with security concerns, meant finding an alternative method for destroying the old structure, according to Priestly.

"Dust, noise and vibrations are reasons why we couldn't use a wrecking ball or implode the structure," says Priestly, whose company owns much of the larger demolition equipment typically used for projects of this magnitude.

Besides these obvious restrictions, Toronto airport officials have strict regulations about operating a crane and wrecking ball which makes a lot of sense if you are flying in and out of the airport.

Another reason why the demolition company wasn't allowed to level the building all at once was because of asbestos located throughout the structure. Aurora Abatement Services Company Ltd.--a sister company to Priestly Demolition--safely removed the hazardous materials at the start of the project.

DEMOLITION BEGINS

In April of 2005, the airport permanently closed the parking facility at the old T1 location and prepared it for demolition. At that point, a new terminal was built with its own parking facilities. The older, nine-story concrete parking structure was scheduled to be brought down in six months in accordance with the airport's demolition regulations.

Speed was of the essence in this situation. That is when the compact equipment made its appearance.

Priestly says the project began at the top of the facility with several compact excavators. The excavators were placed on top of the structure with hoist equipment and went to work, breaking up concrete floors. The excavators worked simultaneously on multiple floors of the facility--a benefit of their size and weight. Working 12 hours per day during the week and eight hours on Saturday, the demolition crew used its excavators to tear apart 100,000-square-foot levels with Bobcat breaker attachments. Priestly's breaker attachments were capable of exerting up to 1,280 blows-per-minute.

Skid-steer loaders with industrial bucket grapple attachments lifted the demolition debris and transported it to the drop spot--the edge of the parking level. The buckets were emptied over the side into a debris pit below where the materials were sorted into piles to be recycled. To keep dust to a minimum, Priestly Demolition used a water truck to spray the area regularly. It took the company just seven weeks to finish demolition of the top three stories.

Recycling was an important characteristic of this project, according to Priestly. "Ninety-eight percent of the materials in this project were recycled, including the concrete, which was done on site," says Priestly. "The recycled concrete is being used as aggregate for construction purposes at the airport; the scrap iron was sent to a yard to be recycled, while additional debris was sorted for recycling purposes."

Recycling concrete not only saves the company money by keeping it out of the landfill, but it reduces the materials needed for future concrete projects, such as the roads and runways at the airport.

While all of this was going on, a fleet of Bobcat skid-steer loaders was hard at work below. Priestly says his crew used industrial grapple buckets on the skid-steer loaders because of their quick opening and closing speeds. Teeth located at the top of the bucket are controlled hydraulically and can close to handle material that would otherwise be difficult to control.

ON THE JOB

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) was responsible for selecting Priestly Demolition to complete the multi-million demolition project, which includes much more than just the parking structure. It encompasses the entire old Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 Mode K and L. The GTAA manages operations at the Toronto airport, where approximately 25 million passengers traveled through in 2003.

In addition to the standard list of requirements for a demolition project, Priestly had numerous environmental and safety regulations that were established on this sensitive job site. Those include airside security; fire protection; site safety; GTAA erosion and sediment control plans; traffic management; and numerous environmental considerations.

By late July, approximately one-third of the demolition project was complete and, according to Scott Armstrong, corporate affairs and communications contact with the GTAA, and everything was going well. "Priestly Demolition has an excellent safety record and the demolition is right on schedule," Armstrong said at the time.

Priestly Demolition is a well-known family construction business based in Ontario, Canada. Since 1971, the company has been providing demolition, abatement and remediation services to its diverse client base across Ontario.

This story was submitted on behalf of Bobcat Co., West Fargo, N.D.