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A Director's
Chair: Site Preparation for New Building
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by Greg Pedrick
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The future site of Honest
Weight contains a building that was built as a warehouse in the 1950s.
As you know, it was determined via membership vote that the building
was not applicable for the needs of the new store envisioned, and will
be "razed" this summer '09.
When a building is built, there is a lot of entrained energy within the
structure, particularly in the materials that comprise the structure.
There is energy to produce the material (e.g., concrete, steel,
plaster, energy to transport the material to the sight, and energy
expended during the construction process). For this reason, our
contractor managing the construction of the new building will follow
carefully a detailed demolition plan that will encompass the removal
and salvage of reusable materials and demolition of structural
material. This will all be done with the primary objective to
recuperate as much entrained energy from the existing materials as
possible. The design team for our project has pledged to achieve a
level of Green Building Certification in the Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) process. Properly following the demolition
plan will earn points toward this certification.
The first step in the demolition will be to inventory all of the
existing items in the building to determine whether they can be: (1)
re-used/recycled, (2) donated, or (3) sold/auctioned. The primary
objective is to keep the inventoried items out of the waste stream.
Once the inventory is properly removed, the actual demolition will
begin.
The primary building material is cement block, referred to as
Cementitious Modular Unit (CMU) and will be crushed to predetermined
specifications that will provide "clean fill" for the site as it is
regarded and filled for the new building. The various metals within the
building will be recycled where applicable and salvaged by the
demolition crew. When a demolition contractor bids on a planned
demolition, they base their bid on the building materials that are in
the building, sometimes planning to recover the metals for example
like; copper, brass, and steel. This factor provides an indirect
benefit to the Co-op by avoiding the hauling/ disposal costs and
providing the contractor with an added incentive to perform the work.
The salvageable metal within the building, that will not be taken by
the contractor will be sent out for conditioning or repainting and
returned to use for columns, beams, joists, trellis and decking within
the new building. The objective being to keep the metal out of the
waste stream. Taking all of these actions contributes to overall LEED
points for certifying the building by the United States Green Building
Council (USGBC), and using the best sustainable practices to make new.
An additional benefit to Honest Weight in anticipation of the new
structure is the long standing knowledge and involvement with this
particular site by our contracted civil site engineer. Their knowledge
of the site's underlayment, sedimentation, and drainage capabilities
will provide for optimum decisions as coordination for additional fill,
grading and preparation for the new structure occurs. In terms of fill
and grading for example, to grade the site down for an optimum approach
by pedestrian, bicyclist or car, 1 foot of grade removed will yield
5,000 yards of fill. With this type of knowledge the site engineer will
plan and utilize for material to be reused and graded within the site,
as much as possible. Reducing transport costs and also contributing to
overall LEED points in certifying the building construction project.
Rest assured as the existing building comes down and preparation is
made for the new building to be constructed, every possible aspect of
reuse and sustainability of materials will be taken into account. The
new building will be a reflection of the existing site and contain
planned, sustainable materials that last over an extended duration to
conventional building practices.
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