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A photograph of Costello Dismantling’s Volvo 700 High Reach Excavator in action was selected as one of the best industry photos of the year by Engineering News Record. This image was captured by Massachusetts based photographer Stephen SetteDucati, who specializes in demolition photography, and it shows the dismantlement of a very interesting structure in Enfield, CT.
If you bought a greeting card anywhere east of the Mississippi River starting in about 1952, chances are it passed through Hallmark’s Enfield, CT distribution center. This one million square foot facility -- comprised of warehouse space, distribution areas, and offices – was a major job creator in the region, and employed over 500 people at the time of its closing in 2015.
The warehouse structure was quite remarkable, featuring a tightly-spaced racking system that extended floor to ceiling, supporting the roof. While this design was perfect for uniformly sized, lightweight boxes, the building didn’t lend itself to many other applications. However, the geographic location and local work force was still ideal for warehouse space, so developer Winstanley Enterprises looked at other options for this valuable building.
The final design for new warehouse space called for partial demolition of the existing building: the roof and structural racking would be eliminated, and the total height of the building would be lowered from 76 feetto 42 feet. However, the slab and shortened exterior wall would remain. A team was assembled by the General Contractor CE Floyd which included Costello Dismantling performing demolition services, and New England Yankee performing asbestos abatement. Abatement work began in late 2016, removing asbestos-containing caulking and other materials from the portions of the building impacted by the demolition scope. Costello and New England Yankee worked closely together to deliver an aggressive phased schedule.
Demolition work began in January, after portions of the building had been abated. At its peak, Costello utilized 3 high-boom excavators (including a Volvo 700 with 110’ of boom), 3 support excavators and material handling excavators, and a full labor crew. Interior portions of the building could be dismantled entirely with heavy equipment, while the perimeter of the building required extensive hand work to protect the wall that remained.
Visit our YouTube page to watch a video of this project filmed by Stephen SetteDucati!
Congratulations to Stephen for being recognized for an incredible photograph which truly captured the size of the structure, with its interesting color scheme, and the power of the excavator. Please visit www.setteducati.com to see more of Stephen’s demolition photography!
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