From the Top

The story of the Omni Hotel demolition is one of high-production demolition with hydraulic hammers.

Independence Excavating, Valley View, Ohio, demolished the Omni Hotel under a prime contract with Morse Diesel International to make room for a larger hotel that included underground parking and an upgraded conference facility. Independence is a multi-service contractor that also has demolition and concrete and asphalt recycling subsidiaries.

The Omni Hotel’s location on East 96th and Carnegie Ave. within the city of Cleveland precluded the use of a wrecking ball. Certain damage to a glass-covered pedestrian bridge that ran the length of the hotel, just 30 feet from its base, would result.

According to the Independence Excavating Web site, the Omni Hotel was comprised of 7-inch-thick post-tensioned concrete slabs spanning 75 to 100 feet over 8-inch-thick lightly reinforced shear walls spaced 25 feet center to center.

Under a wrecking ball, post-tensioning cables might have snapped and flown through the air. Major sections of the building also might have collapsed in an unplanned way, says Steve Wilk, project superintendent for Independence Excavating.

Nor could the building have been imploded in light of its proximity to the Cleveland Clinic, which is sensitive to the vibrations an implosion would have created. An implosion might have damaged the pedestrian bridge as well. Yet the Omni Hotel had to come down to make room for a much larger hotel on the same location.

Independence began demolition in late January of 2000. The first step, says Wilk, was to strip the building of its contents—partitions, ceilings, restroom equipment, carpeting and the like. Then came removal of the building’s curtain walls. "We pulled the curtain wall back into the building with Bobcats and grapple buckets," says Wilk.

Next, Independence and subcontractor Precision Environmental Co., Cleveland, installed steel post shores on the top four levels of the building—a measure taken to ensure that the floors could support mini-excavators and skid-steer loaders. While shoring the building, the contractor also installed scaffolding over the building’s entire north face to protect the pedestrian walkway.

Then demolition of the concrete floors and walls could begin. Independence attacked the 19-floor building, working from the top down, using four main pieces of demolition equipment: a Bobcat mini-excavator with an Allied Construction Equipment Street Hammer; a Takeuchi mini-excavator fitted with an Allied Rental Hammer; a Bobcat skid-steer loader with a second Street Hammer; and a Bobcat skid-steer loader carrying a variety of hammers throughout the project.

Allied and Independence used the project to run proprietary tests of several hammers, including three Allied Street Hammer models and two Allied Rental Hammer models.

Independence used a crane to lift the equipment into place atop the Omni Hotel. Demolition of the two-story penthouse and the building’s roof came first. "Half the penthouse was demolished and half the roof was demolished," says Wilk. "The second half of the penthouse was demolished from a base on the roof, and the second half of the roof was demolished from a base on the 17th floor."

The two mini-excavators demolished the floors and did most of their work from the top down, by breaking the same level on which they rested. "In the beginning we would start on an outside edge and work our way in toward the elevator shafts," operator Dennis Furillo says. Furillo ran a mini-excavator equipped with a hammer. "I would work my way to the center of the building."

"The two skid-steer loaders worked the level just below the floor being demolished above," Wilk says. One skid-steer carried an Allied Street Hammer to hammer down walls while the other one was used for cleanup or also hammered material. "Each floor and the walls below were completely demolished before we started on the next level down," says Wilk.

"Once a floor was demolished to the point where a skid-steer could clean up, the other skid-steer could go in and start hammering down walls," says Wilk. "That was the sequence: demolish a floor, send in a skid-steer below to do clean up, then send in a second skid-steer to break down the walls." The skid-steer with clean-up duty dumped the broken concrete down the elevator shaft.

It was high-production hammer work. "The Allied hammers worked great," says Wilk. "I’ve broken a lot of concrete with Bobcats and hammers, and I’ve never had a hammer that worked as well as these Allied hammers.

"It only took us a short time to demolish one level of the Omni Hotel," says Wilk. By the time demolition was half-complete, Furillo says, the crew was taking out a floor in record time.

Furillo says, "I was really impressed," with the performance of the Street Hammer in particular. "The hitting power and speed were exceptional."

What was the Omni Hotel project’s major challenge? "We had 19 floors to demolish, and we had to go fast to get finished in the time that we did," says Wilk. "Each floor had close to 13,000 square feet. We started hammering at the end of February and finished up early in June."