Case Study: Reaching New Heights
March 1, 2010
LVI/Mazzocchi is the sixth-largest demolition company in the country. Its fleet includes a Sennebogen 870 R-HD equipped with a 182-foot long-reach boom and stick, which makes quick work of specialized dismantling applications.
LVI/Mazzocchi
Wrecking, based in East Hanover, New Jersey, specializes in the demolition and
dismantling of structures on tight sites where doing it by hand is not an
option and traditional methods like wrecking balls and explosives are either
prohibited or severely restricted. These highly specialized applications are
typical of urban centers in the northeastern U.S.
“Safety is our No. 1 priority at LVI/Mazzocchi,”
says operations manager Norman Russo. “It really requires a surgical,
meticulous, pay-attention-at-all-times approach and equipment that is up to the
challenge.”
Full-Service Demolition
In business for more than 45 years, Mazzocchi Wrecking was acquired in 2007 by
LVI Services Inc., the largest environmental remediation and facility services
firm in the U.S.
Today, LVI/Mazzocchi is the largest demolition and wrecking company in the New York metropolitan
area and the sixth-largest in the country. The company draws attention to its
strong client relationships and high rate of repeat business as testament to
the quality of its work. It specializes in demolition, dismantling and
environmental services like soil remediation, PCB removal, and lead and
asbestos abatement.
Russo says LVI/Mazzocchi has seen its share of high-profile challenging
projects in recent years, including cleaning up the World Trade Center site
after the tragic events of September 2001. In addition, Russo says, “We brought
down the Philadelphia Convention Center, demolished and removed asbestos
from Hangar 55 at the Newark
Airport and we took apart
a 230-foot-high, 350-ton hammerhead crane at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. These
projects all presented unique challenges for our personnel and
equipment.”
With more than 200 pieces of company-owned-and-maintained equipment in its
fleet, LVI/Mazzocchi prides itself on having the “right equipment for the right
job,” including crushers, hydraulic excavators, cranes and purpose-built
long-reach demolition (LRD) equipment.
Expanding Transportability and Stability
Two years ago, LVI/Mazzocchi added a new machine to its fleet of LRDs: a base
model Sennebogen 870 R-HD with an operating weight of more than 200,000 pounds
that is powered by a Caterpillar C11 diesel engine. Painted in Mazzocchi’s
trademark orange, the 870 R-HD is equipped with a 182-foot LRD boom and stick
front. According to Russo, the tracked unit has been one of the company’s most
durable and reliable LRDs since it went into service.
Used primarily to demolish higher elevation concrete, steel and wood
structures, the Sennebogen 870 R-HD base unit features a transport-optimized
hydraulic extendible crawler undercarriage that gives LVI/Mazzocchi operators
the wide stance and extra stability they need for high work of this type. It
also enables the company to transport the machine quickly from one place to the
next without removing tracks or getting wide-load permits. Three
attachments are used interchangeably with the unit’s
Jewell boom and stick front. A heavy-duty shear is used for cutting steel
structures, a pulverizer for smashing concrete structures, and a grapple-basket
for wood structures. The 870 R-HD model offers operators a 20° tilting cab.
Equipped with tinted safety glass, it provides excellent all-around visibility
and sound-absorbing insulation. The guarding on the cab protects operators from
falling debris.
“We recently used the Sennebogen unit for the demolition of five 178-foot-high
concrete silos in Newark,”
Russo says. “Using the pulverizer attachment, we basically munched each silo
down quite quickly and quite efficiently. That’s the type of job this unit is
purpose-built for.”
Another application Russo anticipates the Sennebogen 870 R-HD being used for is
fire prevention and retention. Russo explains, “If a building catches on fire
and the firemen can’t get near it to put it out, we can go in with our LRDs and
literally cut the building in half much like they do when they cut a pass
during a forest fire. So when the fire reaches that point, it will die out and
not pass onto adjoining structures. Cutting off the fire also allows for
rebuilding if possible. We have had a lot of good luck with this application,
so we have fire departments calling us quite often to get our machines to the
fire site.”
Given the nature of its business, all of LVI/Mazzocchi’s equipment can be
deployed from its New Jersey yard at a moment’s notice with the hydraulic
telescopic undercarriage on the 870 R-HD. Russo estimates that the Sennebogen
unit can be mobilized from the yard in less than two hours. “We have a very
well-trained, diversified crew who like the pressure and can handle it quite well,”
Russo says. “They remove the boom and stick and attachments, take off the
counterweights and place all the components on three trailers and we’re good to
go. Depending on the location of the jobsite, we can usually have the
Sennebogen LRD unit on site, put together and operational in less than three
hours. That’s efficiency.”
LVI/Mazzocchi’s highly-trained maintenance staff can repair all of the
company’s equipment on site to maximize uptime and keep costs down. “I think
the Sennebogen 870 is a machine that is going to last us for a lot of years,”
Russo says.
SIDEBAR: Sennebogen Demolition Machines
For more information on Sennebogen material handlers, visit www.sennebogen-na.com.
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