American DND was hired as a subcontractor under an open-source competitive bid to demolish a radiologically contaminated bunker at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) located in Gaithersburg, MD. As part of this work, we also completed contaminated debris size-reduction, loadout and equipment decontamination. A team of one project manager, three operators, two laborers, and one laborer / mechanic assisted in the completed of this project.  

The concrete bunker was 18 feet (ft) wide by 30 ft long by 17 ft tall and sat on a concrete pad roughly 75 ft by 75 ft. The bunker contained one rebar mat of ¾ inch (in) rebar throughout the outside of the structure. The bunker was demolished with excavators and hydraulic hammers. The material was downsized with additional excavators utilizing concrete processors. Material was loaded out with a skid steer. The foundation was 4 ft thick and contained one rebar mat of 1 in rebar through the outside of the structure. Underground and basements, hallways, and ducts were connected to the foundation of the bunker or within close proximity to the bunker foundation. Specialty saw cutting subcontractors were hired by American DND to accomplish the work safely. Reducing any potential damage to the connected underground structures.

Material produced from demolition was size reduced and loaded into 6 ft by 9 ft super sacks. The material was weighed, staged in a radioactive material area, and then loaded onto flatbed semi-trucks for transportation to the waste disposal facility. Ultimately, 4,200,000 lbs of material were loaded out in 225 super sacks. Peak production rates resulted in more than 10 bags at weighing more than 18,500 lbs each being loaded out of the contamination area daily. The entire project was completed with more than 6,250 safe working hours with no Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) accidents or recordables.