Revolutionizing Safety Standards in the Demolition Industry

As the leading professional community for the demolition industry, the National Demolition Association (NDA) empowers its members to succeed and deliver work safely and profitably. To advance its efforts, NDA worked to create the “Considerations for Demolition of Power Plants,” a guidance document that raises awareness and provides information to stakeholders involved in the demolition of power plants. Recent events involving human health and environmental risks, including premature collapse, falling debris, and environmental releases during the demolition of power plant structures encouraged the development of this document.

The objective of the document is to help stakeholders assess how their role helps with overall risk management when preparing for and implementing power plant demolition. The document may be of assistance in providing reasonable expectations for owners in the stages of demolition planning and contractor selection.

Power plants can include structures, infrastructure, and equipment that present challenges during demolition, including chimneys, stacks, tanks, silos, cooling towers, hung boilers, precipitators, transformers, conveyers, subsurface infrastructure, and coal yards. The “Considerations for Demolition of Power Plants” document helps provide awareness of technical risks and information about said risks for consideration by stakeholders before attempting to implement the demolition. The awareness and proper assessment of these technical issues could help with risk management when planning for and then implementing the demolition of power plants.

Committee Work

NDA is comprised of member companies that are interested in advancing the industry. To that end, NDA provides its members and the demolition industry with the tools necessary to be leaders in environmental stewardship, safety, education, professional competency, and government advocacy. NDA has created several committees to perform various functions on behalf of and for the benefit of the companies and organizations that make up its membership. One of these committees is the Industry Committee, which monitors existing, new, and proposed construction and recycling policies and programs that impact the demolition industry and provides information to help members implement solutions that meet or exceed government regulations.

The committee creates guidelines, guidance documents, and white papers − all while curating data to benefit member companies and the industry. On a periodic basis, the committee reviews existing standards, guidance documents, white papers, best practices, and offers expertise in identification or creation of new standards, guidance documents, and best practices that will have an impact on demolition techniques, safety, and the use of products and services.

As part of NDA’s 2021 strategic plan, the committee was tasked with providing guidance on power plant demolition and dismantlement. A recent estimate that, in the next 10 years, over 400 plants are scheduled to come offline, informed the need to create the document. Part of NDA’s mission is to be the leading source of accurate industry information and knowledge, and, as a result, the organization felt it was necessary to be the leader in power plant demolition and dismantlement.

A subcommittee within the Industry Committee was formed to develop the guidance. The subcommittee is comprised of volunteers, including engineers, consultants, implosion contractors, and demolition contractors. Additionally, the document is produced in collaboration with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), as part of an OSHA Alliance agreement signed in July 2021. Per the alliance, NDA is developing a similar informational and awareness document for demolition communication and explosive demolition. Once review is completed and comments are received from OSHA, these co-developed NDA/OSHA documents and projects related to the alliance will be housed on the NDA website for use by industry practitioners and stakeholders. For more information, visit the alliance webpage and access the latest documents, including “Considerations for Demolition of Power Plants.”

Process

The process of creating this document began with NDA members who wanted to bring attention and awareness to the complexity of the demolition of power plants to provide a detailed understanding of the potential hazards, structural systems, and environmental conditions to ensure the appropriate demolition methodologies could be developed. The document evolved by determining what level of information could be provided to ensure that the guidance could be used by all the stakeholders in the process. The process took about two years, during which the collective contributions of committee members were organized into one document and reviewed by outside subject matter experts (SMEs).

Audience

The audience is all stakeholders in the demolition of power plants. This includes owners, contractors, local authorities, and engineers. This document does not attempt to specify competency and experience requirements for contractors, consultants, management, and oversight personnel, but rather emphasizes awareness for certain technical aspects of the work for contractors, engineers, owners, and regulating entities.

Key Takeaways

The use of the latest technology for planning and executing the demolition process can reduce the risk involved. While a detailed understanding of the infrastructure and associated risks will set the project up for a safe delivery, it must also be recognized that unforeseen conditions will exist, and procedures and processes need to be in place to identify and manage changed conditions.

Future Updates

The scope of this document does not include contractual issues or legal issues, but there is a possibility they could be added in the future based on feedback from the document’s audience. The document can be updated based on any newly released regulations as well, and has sections related to modeling technology and three-dimensional (3D) laser scanning technology, which may expand with the increased utilization of these technologies.

Monica Roselli is in Marketing & Communications Services at Smithbucklin.

Monica Roselli

(she/her) 
Marketing & Communications Services
Smithbucklin