SMALL MACHINES WITH BIG POWER HELP PRESERVE Historic Mural
Take a walk around Tysons Corner, Virginia, and you’ll discover art near every Metro station. These outdoor art installations range from sculptures to murals, and are touted as being not only walkable, but Instagram-worthy. Folks hopping on or off the WMATA Greensboro Metro and/or heading to the Tysons Biergarten have surely seen the massive mural, Tysons Luxury Lilies, featuring abstract black and white dots covered in colorful water lilies. The 100’ x 200’ mural was created by Lawrence Atoigue, an artist professionally known as Naturel. It debuted in 2016. According to Tysons Partnership, the mural was inspired by Claude Monet’s iconic and expansive “Water Lily” series.
Concrete Technology Services Mid-Atlantic Inc.
(CTS) was contracted by GC Total Civil Construction to make various improvements to the WMATA Greensboro train station in Tysons Corner, Virginia, including the modification of an existing concrete retention area. CTS needed to remove a portion of the retention pond wall adjacent to the neighboring building foundation, which featured the aforementioned mural that needed to be preserved. The project had two phases, one in July of 2021 and one in August of 2021, and it lasted a total of three days between the two phases.
Most of the retention pond could be removed with traditional excavators and breakers without the concern of damaging the mural or any other surrounding features.
However, a portion of the retention area was poured so closely against the neighboring building’s foundation that CTS knew extra care needed to be taken to inspect and carefully demolish the retention wall.
CTS operators decided that using a Brokk 500 was the best option to carefully demolish the wall, because of its power to size ratio. An underpowered and less precise mini excavator would have been the only alternative option other than men on scaffolding with handheld jackhammers, both of which would have caused major schedule and cost overruns.
Since the wall needed to be exposed to facilitate the sub-grade demolition, all the work was performed in a
relatively small excavation area supported by sheet piles. The risk of damage to the neighboring historic mural wall and tight workspace made the job more delicate. CTS and the GC reviewed the details of the existing conditions with all contractors involved. Precise holes were drilled to inspect the interface between the retention wall and the neighboring building foundation. Once approval was received from the owner and GC, a Pentruder 30 HP wall saw was used to saw the end points and the demolition began.
The work was completed with no issues thanks to the talented operators Flavio Reyes and Francisco Mora with the Brokk 500 remote controlled demolition machine.
The wall that was removed measured 250’ x 10’ x 20”.
All standard safety protocols were observed including operators wearing proper PPE, extensive machine operation training and safety training.
The project was finished ahead of schedule and under budget. CTS said that they are very satisfied with the results of their team’s efforts on this job. Ron Salera, General Manager of CTS, had this to say about the project, “It was a small, delicate project, but solving a problem in a sensitive situation is part of what we love about this business. We believe CTS was a perfect fit for the project based on our core competencies and experience on other WMATA train station projects.”
CSDA is proud to represent companies like CTS that are constantly innovating new solutions to modern problems and staying on the cutting edge of technology. With highly trained operators, reliable service and an unwavering commitment to safety, customers of CSDA contractors can have peace of mind knowing the project will be completed safely and worry-free.
COMPANY PROFILE
Concrete Technology Services Mid-Atlantic Inc. has been in business since 1990. They service the entire East Coast of the United States from their headquarters in Glen Dale, Maryland, and office in Raleigh, North Carolina. Their services include complete and selective structural demolition, engineered shoring, flat sawing, wire sawing, track sawing and core drilling. Their specialties are government buildings, civil and heavy construction, industrial facilities and wastewater treatment plants. They have been a CSDA member since 1999.
RESOURCES
General Contractor: Total Civil Construction
CSDA Contractor: Concrete Technology Services Mid-Atlantic
Contact for Story: Courtney Herndon
Email: Courtney@designbuild-media.com
Tel: 954-573-0013
Website: www.ctsinc.org
Methods Used: Selective Demolition, Wall Sawing
