Music city showdown: Nashville project compares benefits of re-using segregated and salvaged materials - Demolition Case Study

C&D Recycler, Jan-Feb, 2003 by Bob Brickner

When the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County (Metro Nashville) hired a consultant to lead the bidding process for a major construction and demolition project, it expressed a desire to make sure the project was in harmony with the "Clean, Green and Lean" Waste Management Plan that Metro Nashville has enacted.

Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc. (GBB), Fairfax, Va., is a consultant to Metro Nashville responsible for overseeing parts of the project, including preparation of the site on which a utility company will construct a new District Energy System (DES) near downtown Nashville.

GBB sought several bids using different dismantling, demolition and construction methods to yield a process that would be environmentally responsible while also serving the taxpayers well by holding costs down.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Two major construction projects are currently progressing directly to the south of the Nashville Thermal Transfer Corporation (NTTC), a waste-to-energy plant that provided heating and cooling to more than 35 buildings in the downtown Nashville area for almost 30 years.

Contractor Ray Bell Construction Co. is working under contract to the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) to complete the new Gateway Bridge/Boulevard construction project. Also nearby, and the principal subject of this article, the new Metro Nashville District Energy System (DES) has been awarded to Constellation Energy Source Inc. (CES) of Baltimore, Md.

The development of these two neighboring projects required the ultimate demolition and site-related cleanup of a total of six buildings, collectively known throughout this article as the WorkZone.

Five of the six parcels and buildings designated for demolition fell within the scope of the Ray Bell-TDOT Gateway Project, with the one additional Work Zone building falling within the Metro District Energy System (DES). During the project, the six buildings are being referred to as follows:

* Bolden Building (Gateway TDOT Project related)

* Ragland-Install America Building (Gateway TDOT Project related)

* Ragland-Stephens Building (Gateway TDOT Project related)

* Guardian-Building No. I (Gateway TDOT Project related)

* Guardian-Building No. 2 (Metro DES Project related)

* Norma's (Gateway TDOT Project related).

Due to the proximity of the buildings, the common nature of the workspace and the similarities of the demolition contractor scope (including existing roadway support/shoring needs), as well as the condensed project timeframe for all of the project site activity, both new facility owners (TDOT and Metro) expressed a desire to have one common demolition contractor providing the required integrated demolition services for both projects.

Additionally, both general contractors involved expressed a desire to use the same demolition subcontractor on their respective project contracts.

Thus, GBB issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) indicating that the overall project site demolition would involve all six buildings in the Work Zone. The RFP described the overall needs of the project, but by doing so in an integrated manner with subdivided costs, assigned the respective costs to the two main parties involved--TDOT and Metro Nashville--that were funding the overall project. It was expected that the selected demolition contractor from the RFP process would sign an agreement for five building parcels with the TDOT general contractor and an additional contract with Metro for Guardian Building No. 2.

Since the two prime contractors had contracts with TDOT and Metro respectively, certain terms and conditions of their prime contracts were also included in two unique subcontracts provided as attachments or references in GBB's RFP.

THE RFP PROCESS

Since GBB was working as the overall management consultant to Metro, overseeing the complete development of the new Metro DES Project, the firm acted as the expediting procurement consultant for the demolition project within the Work Zone.

GBB solicited formal written proposals from a group of pre-selected contractors to demolish the current structures, while hopefully maximizing the beneficial re-use of the demolition debris to the greatest extent economically practicable. It was noted in the RFP that both the new Metro DES facility and the new Gateway Boulevard would require certain "fill materials." The selected demolition contractors were encouraged by GBB to confirm the quantities and the specifications of the on-site "fill material" they could produce, so the off-site hauling and landfilling of materials could be reduced and the recovery of recyclable materials from the Work Zone could be optimized.

In recent years, the development of the appropriate infrastructure and markets has made the recycling and reuse of construction and demolition debris (C&D) materials cost effective in many cases in Nashville.

On Dec. 13, 2000, Mayor Bill Purcell unveiled the "Clean, Green and Lean" Waste Management Plan for Metro that is intended to increase recycling rates and end the city's reliance on their then-existing waste-to-energy plant. "Our goal is to establish a waste management system that is clean, green and lean," Purcell said. This Metro plan promotes and encourages recycling in order to reduce the amount of waste that must be landfilled. The plan called for an increase in the amount of waste recycled by Metro from 8 percent to 25 percent within the next four years. "This plan will end our reliance on a Thermal Transfer Plant that is one of the oldest in the country," Purcell said. "We choose this course after a careful examination of the costs and benefits of the plant and its impact on our waste management system. Metro taxpayers have subsidized the operation of this plant by more than $80 million. This practice will end."