Company recycles old Harris Overpass
digg it!
Facebook
del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit
By ALGIS J. LAUKAITIS / Lincoln Journal Star
If you need a piece of the Harris Overpass as a souvenir, get in touch with Scott Delgado.
He’s got tons of concrete rubble piled in an industrial area not far from where the overpass once stood on West O Street.
But you’d better hurry. Delgado is recycling the old overpass. He has a monster of a machine that crushes the concrete chunks into little pieces and spits out the leftover iron rebar like chicken bones.
The Metso Lodotrack LT 111OS leaves behind piles of aggregate rock in four sizes, suitable as base layers for roads, pipes, driveways, sidewalks, floors and patios.
Some of the crushed rock already has been used on the Interstate 80 construction project between Lincoln and Omaha. And about 300 tons of it has gone back into the new overpass now being built near the historic Haymarket District.
“Pretty much the whole Harris Overpass was recycled and not taken to the landfill,” said Delgado, vice president of Husker Ready-Mixed Concrete at 141 M St.
Keeping more than 10,000 tons of concrete rubble from being buried in a landfill — thus extending its disposal life for a week — was one of the key reasons for massive recycling project. Ten thousand tons of concrete rubble can fill about 1,000 dump trucks.
Most of the construction debris recycled by Delgado came from the overpass substructure: pilings, columns and abutments. The roadway slabs from the overpass were taken by a private landowner. And the big steel beams that supported the overpass were sold to a metal salvage yard.
“I think it’s great,” said City Recycling Coordinator Gene Hanlon, noting that Husker Ready-Mixed Concrete is one of a handful of local companies that recycle concrete and asphalt for reuse. The others are: Cather & Sons Construction Co., Constructors Inc., Dobson Bros. Construction Co. and Pavers, Inc.
“Those private businesses provide a significant service to the community by providing a beneficial use for this type of waste,” Hanlon said.
He said an annual survey done by his office shows that those five companies recycled 283,000 tons of concrete and 77,000 tons of asphalt in fiscal year 2006-07.
Construction material that is not recycled can be taken to North 48th Street Transfer Station to be used as beneficial fill material at the landfill that once occupied that site. But it must be free of wood, combustible and organic material.
“The old landfill has settled. We have a bowl effect there with the settling of the waste. We need to bring the grade up, so were taking C & D (construction and demolition) waste,” Hanlon said.
The other key reason for recycling the Harris Overpass, obviously, is money. Delgado and his two brothers and partners, Ryan and Joe, received the concrete rubble for free from the demolition company, saving the cost of trucking the material to the landfill and $40,000 in disposal fees.
In addition to selling the aggregate, Delgado said, his company, a minority-owned business, also made about $10,000 from selling the iron rebar to a metal salvage company.
Dave Edwards, project manager for Husker Ready-Mixed Concrete, said they had to “build a little crew” to handle the recycling operation. The machine can crush about 500 tons per day, depending on the size of aggregate.
The Delgado brothers hope to find new uses for concrete debris. Right now the use is limited. The concrete rubble from the Harris Overpass cannot be mixed to create new batches of concrete because it could contain oil, solvents and other harmful chemicals from decades of bearing traffic.
So, the company markets the aggregate for road construction and residential projects as base-layer material. It also could be used for resurfacing bike trails. Strength studies are being done to determine if contaminated concrete could be used safely as in ingredient in new concrete mixes, Delgado said.
“Once raw materials (like limestone) are depleted, you can’t replenish it. It’s done,” said Delgado, who believes there is a bright future for these types of recycled materials.
In order to accomplish the recycling job, the company had to invest almost $500,000 in the Metso Lodotrack. The giant machine crushes and screens the aggregate and also uses a powerful magnet to separate the iron material from the debris.
The machine, which is on steel tracks, can be taken to any job site in Nebraska or elsewhere, according to Delgado. He said his company will accept concrete construction debris from anybody as long as it is free of dirt and other contaminants. Iron rebar is OK.
Most of the Harris Overpass, built in 1954, now sits in three big piles, each containing aggregate of various sizes. But the recycling job is not finished, yet.
Delgado said the Matso Lodotrack will be crushing up the pavement underneath the old overpass soon.
Reach Algis J. Laukaitis at 402-473-7243 or alaukaitis@journalstar.com.
Post Your Comment
Standards and RulesYour posted comment will appear after it has been approved.
Frequently asked questions about story commenting.
Good Job wrote on April 9, 2008 2:12 pm:
Please wrote on April 9, 2008 2:22 pm:
West A Dad wrote on April 10, 2008 10:44 am: