The Deconstruction Forum’s conference, a place to debate and generate ideas
30/06/2014
The Deconstruction Forum was a three day event with diverse activities but on Friday June 13th, all the participants enjoyed a full day conference.
The presentations were done by professionals, specialized on diverse topics of the industries involved in deconstruction (demolition, decontamination, concrete sawing and drilling and recycling).
The conference session aimed to be a place to “generate ideas” and “engage debate” in words of EDA President, Pilar de la Cruz.
Between the sessions the participants enjoyed breaks on the exhibition area, where the sponsors showed their products.
Conference session 1
At 9:00 a.m. the day began with a conference session moderated by EDA President, Pilar de la Cruz.
The first speaker to take the floor was Michael R. Taylor from NDA (USA), who explained the situation of the lead, “the new asbestos”, explaining among other the potential health effects for overexposure to this material.
Mr. Taylor was followed by Walter Werner, member of EDA’s club of honor, with the presentation of the successful blasting of a 770 m viaduct in Germany. The audience could enjoy a video of the blasting of the construction.
Before the first break, Lindsay Pepperrel, from ERM (UK) showed case stories on the daily findings on decontamination of hazardous waste.
Conference session 2
The second conference session was moderated by IDE President, Steve Jack (UK), and it hold a presentation on the development of C&DW recycling in Europe, made by Geert Cuperus from FIR (The Netherlands).
Mr. Cuperus explained some of the reasons to establish the importance of recycling on construction. Alongside with the environment issues, it is also important because it creates more jobs. “All member states can reach high recycling rates if authorities are willing”, Mr. Cuperus told the audience.
This session had two case stories on demolition. First of all, Francisco Cobo, Detecsa (Spain) showed the participant of the Deconstruction Forum the interior demolition of a building complex in Madrid, explaining all the process and the objects, materials they came upon during the deconstruction.
“One of the most important of the proyect is the stabilization of the complex”, Mr. Cobo explained, telling the participants the actual situation of the demolition: “the next step will be the demolition of the upper levels and the façade”.
To close this session, Rainer Melzer, from Germany, explained the process of the blast demolition of the AFE Tower in Frankfurt, illustrating it with a video from diverse perspectives of the demolition, which was a great success for every agent involved.
Conference session 3
After a break for lunch, the third session, moderated by FIR Delegate, Giorgio Bressi (Italy), started with the intervention of Christophe Sykes, from Construction Products Europe with a presentation on sustainability and end-of-life of construction products.
At his presentation, Mr. Sykes established the bullet points that should be achieved by the industry. “One of our priorities is to promote sustainability”, showing the bullet points on the documents on Resource Efficiency Opportunities which “begins with promote best practices”.
Mr. Sykes end up his presentation with an important key for the association and for every agent involved: “the collaboration between demolition industry and construction product sector to share costs and benefits”.
The second speaker on taking the floor was Gunther Wolff, from the European Commission, with the presentation under the title “Construction and demolition waste management in the EU: the way forward”, explaining the importance of the benefits of more and better recycling that “are clear for the European Commission”.
The third speaker was Stine Egsgaard, from J-Jensen (Denmark) who showed the innovation on decontamination of PCB with a product. “We found a system for environmentally rehabilitation of contaminated surfaces”, a system that also protect the employees.
The session ended with a case story on the process from construction to recycling through demolition made by John Rimmer, Cantillon (UK) who explained that the company “make sure every material wasn’t send to landfill”.
Mr. Rimmer, named projects as the Gypsum project, on which EDA is actively involved, which main objective is to change the way gypsum based waste are treated. The presentation was closed with a presentation of DRIDS, a system that provides contractors practical information for materials and products encountered during deconstruction.
Conference session 4
The last session was moderated by IACDS President, Lars Sandsstrom, and held three presentations.
Miguel Ángel Prieto, from DYR/DETECSA (Spain) took the floor to present how his company made a dismantling and demolition of the power stations of Sant Adriá de Besós and Badalona in Barcelona (Spain), who explained the whole process.
Diverse pictures and maps showed each process of the dismantling and demolition of every construction at the area, from fuel oil tanks, generator, boilers, water wall and some other products at the electrical power plant.
Prieto was followed by Tamer Öztoygar, President of the national association from Turkey, IMDER, showed the perspective on the Turkish construction equipment market at his country.
Mr. Öztoygar presented IMDER and announced the next International Construction Equipment Congress, which will be celebrated in Turkey on September 2015. He followed the conference with the situation of the construction and the deconstruction sector in Turkey.
Last, but not least, Jaime Peribañez, from PERFOX (Spain,) closed the professional program with a case story on the special application on concrete sawing and drilling on an old viaduct over railway lines.
