Design, Demolition, and Restoration of Abandoned Aerofab Building in Sanford, Maine
This Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Brownfields funded project consisted of the design, demolition, and restoration of the abandoned Aerofab building in Sanford, Maine. Weston & Sampson was responsible for the demolition design and construction administration of the approximately 30,000 square foot buiding on a 34,000 square foot lot. The building consisted of a rubber membrane roofing system (asbestos containing material); interior and exterior walls of wood frame construction; exposed concrete floor slab; wood, sheetrock, and plaster wall and ceiling systems; HVAC; two covered bridge walkways crossing the Mousam River; and plumbing and electrical systems. Also located on the property was an abandoned elevated wood railroad trestle and an abandoned aboveground oil storage tank, which were both removed.
The building was demolished into piles and crushed on site prior to transportation. Once the building was deconstructed (two days), excavators crushed the debris into sizes manageable for end use. The crushed debris was loaded into tractor trailer trucks and transported to a facility to be recycled. During these activities, metal was separated from the piles by hand or with the excavators.
In an effort to divert materials from landfilling, the project was designed to recycle or reuse material from demolition. The two most abundant materials from the demolition of the building were structural wood timbers and the concrete/brick in the floor and foundation. The wood demolition debris was recycled and transported to Bio-Fuels in Lewiston to be processed into chips to be burned at a mass burn facility to generate electricity. The other large demolition debris component was the concrete and brick from the walls, floors, and foundation, which was crushed on site and reused as two feet of subgrade material at the site. Other recyclable materials from demolition included paper and metal. The overall recycling rate for the building demolition was calculated at over 99%, not including the asbestos containing roof material that was removed prior to demolition by others.