Consolidated Natural Gas Company
Pine Grove, WV – 1997 – $390,000

Scope of Work:
This project involved dismantling a concrete smokestack at a coal-fired power plant. The stack was located adjacent to a natural gas compressor station. The smokestack dimensions were 23 feet in diameter at the base by 325 feet high. It was the tallest stack in the US when it was built early in the 20th century. The surface of the stack was coated with asbestos- and lead-containing paint. The proximity of the stack to an adjacent structure and to a high-pressure gas line buried several feet from the base required the stack to be carefully dismantled, piece-by-piece, rather than imploded.

Neumeyer Environmental developed an approach to the stack demolition to suit the site constraints and work activities that had not been used before. Demolition was accomplished by suspending a hydraulic shear from a crane. The shear was fitted with guide rails that positioned the shear jaws at the wall of the stack. The rails were designed to deflect the concrete into the stack interior. TV cameras were mounted along the boom of the crane with monitors inside the crane cab at ground level. This allowed the operator to control the shear from a safe location. Dismantling was performed mechanically so that personnel were not working at high elevations.

The approach to this demolition proved successful and the area was returned to production supporting a maintenance and repair facilities operation.