Equipment focus: Going, going, gone

News headlines such as “GM to Close Proving Grounds” and “GM Site Reborn as Housing Development” tell only part of the story. The people of Detroit-based General Motors (GM) and their test vehicles are long gone in Mesa, Arizona, relocated to a site further south in the state. What remained after their departure — 60 buildings, 74 miles of test track and a huge water tower — took some time to get rid of, but alas also have moved on.

And it’s thanks to Hank Manning and his 6-year-old company, Reclamation Sciences, based in the Phoenix area.

Manning is one of the three owners of Reclamation Sciences. He also is sole owner of Zain Resources, which cleared and cleaned up the old proving grounds site that the automobile manufacturer had operated since 1952. Reclamation Sciences specializes in land reclamation and removal of items such as buildings and infrastructure. Zain Resources, a two-year-old firm, provides the heavy equipment and trained operators to complete the work.

The company purchased the entire works except the property, and became the dismantler, packager, seller, shipper and, in some cases, the rebuilder of what was left behind. Manning documented the final destination of each item left on-site.
 

Challenge accepted

By the time GM had closed the proving grounds in 2009, the property had been purchased by DMB, a development company with a focus on building communities. Workers are constructing the 3,200-acre project, Eastmark, at this site in Mesa. DMB was left with 430,000 square feet of buildings, 85 miles of roadway and track (including the banked test track where the minimum speed was 90 mph), and numerous other items, both above and below ground. The company sold all of this material to Reclamation Services for $100. The challenge for the buyer: Remove and recycle or find new uses for at least 97 percent of materials.

“I spent a couple of months doing a complete inventory of what we purchased and put together a plan to salvage as much as possible,” Manning says. “In the end, only three percent went to a landfill.”

Manning has a diverse background in construction projects so he knew what he was getting into and had some idea of how to evaluate the property he was about to purchase. No one else, according to Manning, had any interest in taking on this massive project.

“I was very surprised that over the five years it took to complete the job, some of my projections were so close that you could not have planned on anything like that happening,” he recalls. “As a result, we were able to do very well.”
 

Successful results

Manning purchased 60 steel buildings, both testing facilities and warehouses; some were as large as 30,000 to 40,000 square feet. He took most of them apart, packaged them and, once a buyer was found, shipped them out. For example, two buildings became part of a large California dairy operation. His company reassembled some buildings at their new locations.

“For the buyers, this route was much less expensive than putting up a new building,” Manning says. “A business that was looking to expand and could only afford a used building was our perfect customer. When we got done reassembling a building, you could not tell it was not new, and in most cases, the buyer saved up to 40 percent compared to putting up a new structure.”

A special basalt tile (dark gray to black rock) test track built to simulate black ice sold for $166,000 to Ford Motor Co. for its own Arizona proving grounds. The least expensive items: $5 electric reels, of which Manning sold hundreds.

Selling other portions of the facility proved more difficult. Manning took down a 100,000-gallon water tank, including the 128-foot tower. He thought he had it sold, but when the deal did not work out, he tried to sell parts. In the end, he had to scrap the tank.

With an eye toward the future, Manning documented every item at the proving grounds facility and where each piece was eventually housed.

“I did that in order to demonstrate to future clients, especially government agencies, that we could handle similar projects in a way that was environmentally sound and could provide accurate record-keeping,” he says.

In the end, Manning says the GM proving grounds project proved to be successful for Manning and his partners.

“By taking down and selling buildings and other items, we made three to four times the scrap value,” he says.

Part of the reason things worked out so well is that Zain Resources provided efficient equipment and skilled operators to disassemble the proving grounds. He operated four Doosan wheel loaders and two crawler excavators in a variety of assignments. (See the infograph with the equipment used below.)
 

During much of the time the equipment was working at the proving grounds, Manning also used some of the same heavy equipment on other projects. Zain Resources’ first job included environmental reclamation at the Asarco Ray mine, one of the largest open copper mines in Arizona. The company had to clean up containment ponds and make them environmentally sound for water, which involved a great deal of specialty piping and excavation.

Zain used one wheel loader to screen rock, grade and compact processed material into water drainage fields, and load and unload trucks and move concrete highway barriers. Two excavators excelled at rip-rap mining and trench excavations. A third excavator was paired with a 7,500-pound hydraulic breaker to cut a trench in a rock ledge.

“This was our first experience with Doosan equipment and it was a good one,” Manning says. “My operators—a seasoned and critical group—are now asking for the Doosan machines instead of our other equipment; very impressive products.”

As Manning looks to the future, he sees plenty of opportunity helping government agencies and companies deal with environmental issues.

“After successfully handling the diverse and very complicated proving grounds project and working in tough mining conditions, I think our two firms are uniquely qualified to continue to do well in these areas, and others as well,” he says. “Our experience, employees and equipment have us well positioned for the future.” The article was submitted on behalf of Doosan Infracore Construction Equipment America, based in West Fargo, North Dakota.