EXPLOSIVES DEMOLITION | Weld Wheel Building

When SomeraRoad, Inc. (Somera) of Nashville, Tennessee acquired property at “West Bottoms” in Kansas City, Missouri, they knew that their development plan required a negotiated relationship with Union Pacific Railroad (UP) regarding the dual-track extension of their “Big Mary” mainline which passed along the edge of Somera’s property. The initial UP challenge was related to the demolition of the 10-story tall, structurally deteriorated Weld Wheel warehouse that had a bay cantilevered out over the railroad right-of-way to within 48” of passing rail cars. The heavily traveled UP line carried an average of 18 main trains per day, including two California special trains whose schedule was deemed inviolate.

Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI) of Phoenix, Maryland, USA was asked to act initially as a consultant, then as an Explosives Subcontractor to Somera, in parallel to Somera’s selected conventional Demolition Contractor for fast-track removal of the 10-story, heavily reinforced “pillar and pad” concrete structure, to ensure a short-duration rail outage schedule that Somera could negotiate with UP.

The conventional demolition contract was awarded to Remco Demolition (Remco) with the assistance of Industrial Demolition and Salvage for pre-removal of structures to isolate the 10-story concrete warehouse so that CDI’s implosion design could pull it away from the adjacent railroad right-of-way.

The basement walls of the structure were not designed as retaining walls to carry the surcharge from nearby rail and vehicular traffic and the removal of the building would have left those walls unsupported. Somera had a local engineer design, and local General Contractor, Forge Construction, install concrete to support the 10’ tall perimeter basement wall adjacent to the railroad right-of-way and St. Louis Avenue. Remco gutted out CDI’s selected shot floors in the Weld Wheel structure and installed 38 steel cables, per CDI’s design, to give CDI the structural capacity needed to pull the deteriorated north wall of the warehouse away from the railroad.

Initially, UP agreed to a 10-hour interruption of rail service on the closest mainline railroad track to the building and a 20-hour interruption of rail service on the second main line track, in coordination with up-track bridge repairs that UP had on their schedule.

After CDI’s drill crew had already drilled a total of 778 holes on five levels in the structure, less than a week prior to the implosion, UP advised Somera that the duration of track interruptions would be cut by more than half. Remco and CDI confirmed to Somera and Forge that the tracks could be protected, the building imploded, and the track cleared of any light debris and track protection materials in the shortened timeframe.

Remco worked overnight to place timber crane mats, steel plates, and sand-filled debris bag protection over the closest UP mainline before placing a single layer of geotextile fabric over the outer mainline track to protect the ballast against contamination from dust and small debris particles.

At 6:59 AM on Sunday, May 19, 2024, CDI's successfully imploded the Weld Wheel building using 714 lbs of explosives, exactly per plan. No major debris landed on the railroad right-of-way or the track protection. Remco reopened the outer UP mainline track just 24 minutes after the implosion. It took them another 2 hours and 33 minutes to clear the protective materials they had placed as a precautionary measure over the inner mainline track, fully returning the railroad right-of-way to UP ahead of the shortened track outage schedule.