Recycling and revitalization

In what once was a bustling, thriving city, some areas of Birmingham, Alabama, have become blighted, including the former Carraway Methodist Medical Center.

However, that’s all changing now, thanks to a developer and a contractor taking on the demolition of the structure.

Established in 1908, the hospital was formerly a Level 1 trauma center, but financial setbacks led to its closure in 2008. As the old Carraway Hospital stood vacant, weeds crept up outside the property and graffiti appeared on the buildings. The old, tired medical center began to crumble from the inside.

But Corporate Realty, a Birmingham-based developer, had a plan for its redevelopment. In 2020, the company worked with the city of Birmingham and its city council, which approved the rezoning of the 50-acre site. In addition to the rezoning, the city council approved a $13 million incentive package for the property’s redevelopment.

According to local news reports in Birmingham, the developer plans to convert the property in north Birmingham into a multiuse development called The Star at Uptown.

Corporate Realty selected the development name in reference to the well-known blue star that sat atop the hospital. The new development will include office, retail, entertainment, hotel and multifamily residential space.

But, before that vision could be realized, the hospital needed to be dismantled.

Salvaging metal

Corporate Realty selected Hanceville, Alabama-based Britt Demolition and Recycling, a successful, experienced firm, to complete the demolition. Before any demolition work began, Melissa Britt, a superintendent at Britt Demolition, led a crew that performed a salvage operation. Britt Demolition Owner Tommy Britt says items always are left behind that can be salvaged or recycled.

“Melissa goes in and separates the items into whatever we can sell,” Tommy says. “She salvages the copper, the lead, the electrical components—anything inside the building. She manages the process, gets it all out of the building, puts it on trucks and ships it out.”

Construction is second nature to Melissa. She’s been involved with the company for nearly 20 years but recently took a leadership position as a superintendent.

“I have a crew from five up to 40,” Melissa says. “We go inside the building first and salvage nonferrous metal—anything that a magnet doesn’t stick to—copper, brass, aluminum, stainless steel. We pull it out, … process it and send it off. I came up with different ways of getting it out faster and more efficiently than before.

“I have it down to a science, almost, for every little thing that we do, like how we remove the plates off the wall,” she adds. “That way the process goes faster. Time is money, and we’ve got to hurry up and get out so the heavy equipment can come in and start taking down the building.”

Tommy says she uses a variety of mini excavators and Bobcats along with magnets to help sort and separate the metals.

Demolition begins

In late July 2022, Britt Demolition and Recycling prepared to tear down most of the structures on the site.

Tommy, who led the demolition work, says the project measures 1 million square feet and requires gutting the old Carraway Methodist Medical Center for Corporate Realty.

He says, “We’re tearing down about 650,000 square feet here—a complete teardown through the basement. We’re responsible for lowering the basements to 5 feet below grade.

“On the other 350,000 square feet, we’re gutting it out to the concrete structure,” Tommy adds.

He says Britt Demolition & Recycling has finished work on several buildings associated with the project but is waiting on the owner to decide whether several additional structures will be renovated or demolished.

While on-site, his employees plan to recycle the concrete with a concrete grinder, and the material will be used to refill the basements and the foundations, Tommy says.

An existing parking garage and at least one other structure on the property may be renovated for future use.

Versatile machines

One of the keys to Britt Demolition’s success is having the right equipment for each project. Not only do the machines have to be productive and versatile, but they need to be the correct size. Having a diverse fleet of crawler excavators allows the company to best match the machines to each demolition project.

As Britt Demolition started the Carraway Methodist Medical Center demolition project, it assigned three crawler excavators from Suwanee, Georgia-based Develon North America (formerly Doosan) to begin the teardown, operating Develon DX350LC-5, DX380LL-5 and DX490LC-5 excavators. Each machine was paired with a grapple so the operator could grab parts of the building and tear it down.

Tommy says he uses a variety of models because of the variety of tasks on-site.

“Altogether, we have 14 excavators,” he explains, adding that he has machines capable of reaching 93 feet and 130 feet for big jobs and smaller models for smaller jobs, both of which are employed at the hospital site.

In addition to grapples, Britt uses buckets, hammers, shears, concrete processors and magnets to separate and process debris.

“We have all the different attachments to go on almost each and every machine, so they’re all usable,” Tommy says.

He estimates that 85 percent of the material generated at the job site—mostly concrete and metal—will be recycled.

The Develon construction equipment was purchased from R&M Equipment, a local dealer in Birmingham.

“We never have any trouble with [Develon] excavator booms breaking, no matter how much pressure we put on the machine,” Tommy says.

Ryan Johnson is strategic communications manager for Two Rivers Marketing based in Des Moines, Iowa, writing on behalf of Develon North America. He can be reached via email at ryanj@2rm.com.