Demolition of Hangars 2, 3, and 4 at Eareckson Air Station, Alaska

Brice demolished vacant hangars 2, 3, and 4 at Eareckson Air Station (EAS) at Shemya, Alaska. The hangars are decades old, unoccupied, dilapidated and decayed as a result of the harsh weather and climate of Shemya Island. Demolition included utilities, miscellaneous appurtenances, and foundation slabs.

Brice first performed asbestos abatement and provided a Notice to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development 10 days prior to the work. We then removed the roofs and trusses on all three hangars. Large sections of roof were marked for cutting. Each section was rigged to the lattice boom crane for support, cut apart from the rest of the structure with chainsaws, and then transported by crane to a temporary staging area located adjacent to the hangar.

Brice then demolished the doghouses attached to the sides of the hangars using wet methods and excavators, as portions of the structures may have still contained ACM deemed not safe for removal by hand. The doghouses were continuously soaked using a water truck while an excavator pulled the structures down and stockpiled the debris in a temporary staging area.

Next, Brice removed the structural walls of the hangars using chainsaws and the lattice boom crane. Once the base and horizontal sectional cuts were completed, the crane dropped the wall sections into a temporary staging area until the debris was transported to scrap piles. The concrete foundations were last. We used a heavy duty commercial concrete cutting saw to cut a grid into the foundations, allowing the foundation to be separated into manageable sections for the excavators and loaders to easily remove the concrete and offload the chunks into a concrete debris pile for disposal.

We sorted the demolition debris and waste for disposal. General demolition waste was disposed of in the on-island landfill, scrap metal was placed in the island scrap metal piles, wood debris in the designated scrap lumber pile, and asbestos was buried in the on-island asbestos landfill. Due to the condition and make of the lumber used in the hangar construction, Brice salvaged as much lumber as possible to barge back to Anchorage, Alaska.