Client: St. Paul Public Safety
Location: St. Paul, MN
Services: Demolition

For more than a decade the future of Saint Paul’s ‘Pedro Park’ was up in the air.

14 years after the Pedro family bequeathed the site of their three-generation family business “Pedro Luggage” to the city for use as a park, Bolander was awarded the demolition of the adjacent building, Saint Paul’s Public Safety Annex, a four-story cast in place concrete building that was constructed almost a century ago.

The demolition of this building was the final piece of the puzzle to make way for the future .87-acre Pedro Park, taking up almost ½ a city block, the park will eventually feature walkways, open lawn space, public art, a fenced dog run and more.

The demolition project started with more than a quarter million dollars for removal of asbestos, lead, regulated waste, chemicals, PCB’s and old fuel tanks.

An areaway that runs under the 10^th street sidewalk was completely filled with concrete lean fill to make sure the space would not collapse and could hold the loads of the adjacent road once the building structure was demolished.

Once the building was ready for physical demolition, Bolander’s 230,000 lb Liebherr 960 high reach demolition machine began chewing through the stout cast in place concrete building.  The building that previously housed some of Saint Paul’s Police department including heavy armored vehicles on two levels contained thousands of tons of concrete and heavy steel rebar.

Reducing the building to rubble was a great team effort by many members of Bolanders Demolition Team led by General Superintendent Dave Durand and Site Sup Eric Tuckner.  Once the building was gone, our Earthwork crews led by General Earthwork Superintendent Justin Degnan and Site Sup Justin Coleman brought in close to 10,000 cubic yards of soil from various other projects to create an interim green space that will be used by the public beginning this fall until the final park design is completed and fully funded.

Carl Bolander and Sons was proud to take part in making way for a new chapter of this area of our hometown at the corner of 10^th St east and Robert Street.

Client: MNDOT
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Services: Recovery, Removals, Demolition

On August 1st, 2007 the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis devastatingly collapsed and on August 4th, 2007 Bolander was contracted to remove the bridge components and piers to two feet below grade. This work was conducted under the supervision of the NTSB (National Transportation and Safety Board), MNDOT Bridge Department, and their Independent Engineers. There were many other authorities involved in the coordination of this work including the City of Minneapolis, State Highway Patrol, Hennepin County Sheriff, FBI, U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, Army COE, Federal Highway Administration and a large participation from State, Contractor, and Federal OSHA on site daily.

The first phase of the project was to assist in the recovery of five victims that were missing, and removal of all the vehicles, eighty-eight cars, six semi-trucks and construction equipment and personal items from the bridge. This could only be done when allowed by the Navy, as they did not want to endanger divers in the water should the bridge move or shift. We simultaneously worked multiple operations for removing the bridge. These operations were the river operations, the North and South approaches. The river operations required the use of barges, boats, divers, and crews for rigging, separating, and hoisting the material. The material was then moved down river to a staging area.

The next phase was the removal of the bridge material. All work areas had to be released to us in writing from DOT before we could start. The areas were only released after the NTSB, WJE, and DOT had completed their initial investigation on each section. Bolander removed material from the approaches.  It was hauled off site and recycled or staged for future use by MNDOT. The work required the utilization of cranes, excavators, loaders, man lifts, and miscellaneous other tools in each of the three areas of operation. Once the debris was removed from the river the channel was dredged and cleared for use.

As crews dismantled the 2,000 foot long bridge, every piece was photographed, labeled and cataloged prior to cutting or moving. Pieces of the bridge where then sent to one of three places depending on their importance as evidence in the ongoing investigation, some going as far away as Washington. In less than three months, Bolander crews removed 4,000 tons of steel and 10,000 tons of concrete by working 12 hours per day, six days per week. Carl Bolander & Sons logged over 30,000 hours on the bridge project without a single lost time accident.

Client: Ramsey County
Location: Arden Hills, MN
Services: Building Demolition, Excavation

The Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP) is a former US Army ammunition plant built in the 1940’s to support World War II.  At one point this area employed over 20,000 people producing small caliber rounds.  After supporting the war it was eventually mothballed, redevelopment proved difficult due to extensive environmental pollution despite a few partial remediation efforts.

The full clean-up effort was completed by Bolander between 2013 to 2016 for Ramsey County.  Work was completed under a Contractor-At-Risk contract for demolition and remediation.  Atypical for environmental remediation, this contract put Bolander and our partner, Wenck, at risk for all overruns on known area of contamination for the site.  As part of the county’s purchase agreement, the US Army maintained liability for any unknown areas of contamination.  This unique contract structure allowed financing to move forward, eliminating concerns of overruns on this high risk scope of work.

All demolition and work has been completed. In 2015, Bolander was recognized for this effort by the National Demolition Association in winning the Environmental Excellence Award.  Bolander received the Certificate of Completion form in 2016 from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, clearing the way for the redevelopment and delisting this portion of TCAAP as an EPA superfund site.

Bolander’s significant environmental remediation of the site included removal of the following items:

• 140,000 tons soil removed
• 8,000 ton of PCB impacted soil removed.
• 3,000 ton PCB impacted concrete removed
• Mercury impacted concrete and drains
• 29,000 ft of Asbestos piping
• Regulated Waste
• Asbestos Window Glazing, caulking, pipe wrap

Demolition of site included the following:

• 22 remaining structures and foundations
• 6 building foundations
• 40,000 lf storm sewer
• 38,000 lf sanitary sewer
• 50,000 lf water main
• 42,000 lf fence
• 37,000 lf gas main

The extensive nature of the site and existing infrastructure allowed Bolander to conduct a massive recycling and salvage operation. 93% of the materials removed from the site were recycled or reused in new roadways there and in other parts of the Twin Cities.  An estimated 13,000-plus tons of steel and more than 400,000 tons of concrete and asphalt were recycled and reused, along with Crumpled steel girders, bails of rebar, mounds of misshapen concrete chunks, stacks of 2x12s and thick Douglas fir timbers.

• Articles
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Cities_Army_Ammunition_Plant
• http://cityofardenhills.org/DocumentCenter/View/562
• http://www.twincities.com/2015/04/28/tcaap-site-a-model-for-sustainability-it-could-happen/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDj250T48ZU