Up For the Job

It’s been an especially unpredictable last 10 years for the old Champion paper mill in the Houston suburb of Sheldon, Texas. But there’s nothing uncertain about its fate any longer, now months into a multi-million dollar demolition project to dismantle the decades-old facility.

The future looked much brighter for the Sheldon mill in 1998 when Champion International Paper sold the facility to Donohue Inc., a Canadian company that promptly invested more than $100 million to upgrade Sheldon’s newsprint machines and increase its production capacity to 472,000 metric tons per year.

But only two years later, the mill changed hands again when Donohue was acquired by Abitibi-Consolidated (now AbitibiBowater following a merger between Abitibi Consolidated and Bowater Inc. in 2007). Shortly thereafter, in an effort to reduce high energy costs, Sheldon was converted to a 100-percent recycled paper operation, up from its previous levels of 75 to 80 percent back in 1998.

Even after all the money and effort invested into modernizing and repurposing the mill, Abitibi indefinitely idled the facility in late 2002. The mill’s precipitous fall continued in 2004 when it was closed down permanently. The final nail in the coffin came in 2006 when the property was sold to a developer with plans to turn the site into an industrial park.

With its long history almost completely written, the Sheldon mill had nowhere to go but down when Utah-based Grant Mackay Demolition Co. arrived on scene with a 20-man wrecking crew in September 2008. The contracting firm, in business since 1983, is no stranger to large-scale demolition jobs, although this was the company’s first assignment in the state of Texas.

"We primarily work in the intermountain area—Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and a few other states in the Southwest," says Grant Mackay, owner of Grant Mackay Demolition. "Our main thing is demolition, although we also do some excavation and construction work. Over the years we’ve worked our way up to where now we have about 100 employees and anywhere from 10 to 20 jobs going at one time.

"We tackle some pretty big jobs, including the Geneva steel plant demolition in Utah a few years back. One of the financers on that project was involved with the site here in Sheldon. They were pleased with what we did at Geneva and called us in to submit a bid."

"Typically we handle high reach demolition work with a hydraulic attachment, rather than putting people in risky, elevated situations," says Mackay. "Our primary high reach machine and processor were tied up on a mall demolition job in Salt Lake City, so we decided to purchase new equipment to help take down the paper mill."

Grant Mackay certainly needed an attachment with ample cutting power to keep the job moving, but the company also knew the attachment needed to be as lightweight as possible. Too much weight would make it difficult for an excavator to safely elevate the attachment to the extreme heights of the tallest structures.

Mackay contacted Rasmussen Equipment Co., a local dealer from its home territory, and purchased a new Link Belt LX 700 high reach excavator, a machine with extended booms designed to reach heights of up to 110 feet. To complement the excavator, Rasmussen also sold Grant Mackay an Atlas Copco CC 3300 Combi Cutter, an attachment that offers a maximum cutting force of 441 tons.

"We decided on the Combi Cutter because it’s a very lightweight unit when you consider how powerful it is," said Mackay. "And that lower weight has allowed us to attain a higher reach than would have been possible with a heavier, bulkier attachment."

The CC 3300 weighs 7,320 pounds when equipped with steel-cutting jaws and 7,670 pounds when using universal jaws for crushing concrete. "It’s being used to facilitate the more substantial demolition of the taller structures so we can get them down to more manageable heights," said Mackay. "It’s cracking concrete in some areas and cutting steel in others. Fortunately we’re able to transition between cutting jaws very quickly when necessary."

Quick work is exactly what Grant Mackay Demolition needed out of the CC 3300, given that it’s the only high reach tool on the site.

Grant Mackay is well on track to meet the July 2009 deadline for project completion. After its high reach responsibilities at the mill have been fulfilled, the CC 3300 will continue to assist with secondary reduction tasks, including cutting steel beams on the ground. By the time the job is done, more than 30,000 tons of steel and another 30,000 tons of concrete from the various structures at the Sheldon facility will have been removed and processed. The steel will be sold off, while the concrete will be recycled and used in the re-development of the Sheldon property into an industrial complex for warehouses, contractors and other businesses. C&DR