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When Nucor Steel Corporation bought bankrupt Birmingham Steel in 2002, it acquired four operating steel mills that produce rebar and other bar products. Included in this purchase was a 10-year-old mill in Memphis, Tennessee that had been closed for two years.

In 2007, Nucor filed a $47 million building permit for the plant and selected it as the site for its “Special Bar Quality Products” steel mill. Plans call for a new mill with a production capacity of 850,000 tons that would produce high-quality carbon and alloy rounds for the automotive and heavy-equipment industries. Nucor’s plans also include a building extending north as well as a new 11,600-square-foot administration building and 14,600-square-foot training, health and safety, cafeteria and locker room building. When complete, this state-of-the-art facility is expected to cost approximately $230 million and will employ approximately 200 people.

For this massive project, the general contractor, Associated Brigham Contractors (ABC), from Brigham City, Utah, called upon CSDA member Bluegrass Concrete Cutting, Inc. of Greenville, Alabama, for help. They needed to dismantle large concrete stands, remove large concrete sections from the electric furnace foundation and retrofit existing concrete structures. Bluegrass worked with ABC on several projects in the past and was known for their reliability and expertise.

The demolition would require the removal of 1800 cubic yards of reinforced concrete in different areas of the mill. Bluegrass needed to be sure that the methods used to remove the concrete would not compromise the integrity of the reinforced concrete structures that remained. It was determined that the best methods to cut and remove this amount of concrete would be flat sawing, diamond wire sawing and robotic hammering.

“The project was very extensive and it included altering five different areas of the mill,” according to Anthony Niehaus, vice president and senior project manager for Bluegrass, “We provided personnel and equipment to modify the reheat furnace pit, roughing mill

Bluegrass Companies www.concre tecu t ters .comPO Box 427 107 Mi ldred S t ree t Greenvi l le , AL 36037 334.382.0815 f

Memphis, TN

Steel Mill Revamp

Concrete stand dismantlement and retrofits by

diamond wire sawing and robotic

hammering.

Associated Brigham

Contractors

Vacant Steel Mill Revived in Memphis, TennesseeMassive Project Called Removal of 1800 cubic yards of concrete

repr in ted f romConcre te Openings

Magazine 2008

repr in ted f romConcre te Openings

Magazine 2008

area, finishing mill, cooling pit and electric furnace foundation. This was a maze of tunnels and a cooling system where we needed to retrofit the existing concrete structures.”

The first phase of this job was to remove 65 to 70 percent of the finishing mill tunnels and pits to make way for new walls and structures within the mill. Bluegrass operators drilled a horizontal core hole, 14 feet in depth, for wire access. Next the technicians fed the wire through the core hole and began wire sawing a vertical cut to isolate a large section from the foundation. Once this section of concrete was cut into segments, 250 cubic yards of concrete was hammered into rubble using a Brokk 330 robotic hammer and removed.

Next, in the roughing mill, 500 feet of flat sawing of the perimeter to a depth of 8 inches was required to again isolate a slab for demolition and removal of an estimated 936 cubic yards of concrete trenches and foundations. The roughing mill also had a series of 18-feet tall concrete stands that operators were called upon to remove and this task was accomplished by wire sawing into sections and then rigging for removal by ABC.

The third phase of the project required the removal of 250 cubic yards of concrete wall in the reheat furnace pit. Bluegrass operators cut approximately 65 percent of the whole pit.

The final phase of this project moved to the other side of the mill. Bluegrass operators wire sawed 80 small concrete foundations in the cooling pit and removed 140 cubic yards of foundation in the electric furnace foundation.

Niehaus said, “What made this whole job more complicated were those areas that needed to be isolated for demolition of the surrounding area. Not every area was to be removed and we needed to work around those sections.” In total, bluegrass operators wire sawed approximately 1,000 square feet, flat sawed 1,500 linear feet, drilled 14-foot-deep core holes and hammered 1,800 cubic yards of concrete from the mill to allow for removal by ABC.

This job took four operators who put in 2,800 man-hours over the course of three long months in extremely hot weather. The job came in under budget, on time, with no accidents and proved to be a showcase for the several major types of concrete cutting that can be done by experienced cutting contractors.

Bluegrass Companies www.concre tecu t ters .comPO Box 427 107 Mi ldred S t ree t Greenvi l le , AL 36037 334.382.0815 f

“This was a maze of tunnels and a cooling system, and we used

excellent technology in retrofitting the existing

concrete structures.”

Anthony NiehausVice President

Senior Project ManagerBluegrass