Razing Standards

A special job in South Korea needs a special excavator

By Matthew Treanor

In the Middle East, and the Gulf Countries in particular, contractors typically use large excavators, explosives or wrecking balls to bring down buildings depending on whether they are clearing space for new buildings or, as is quite common, surgically removing parts of a structure to add new sections. South Korean companies, however, have for decades taken a top-down approach, preferring to place their equipment at the summit of a building before clawing their way back down to earth.

In an effort to steer his industry away from this dangerous approach and prompt changes to government regulations, Doh Moon-gil, CEO and chairman of demolition Sungdo Construction has set-out to prove that it is possible to bring down buildings from the ground up but his company has needed a very special machine to do it.

Sungdo Construction was founded in 1979 and the family run company has become South Korea’s leading demolition firm. Moon-gil’s company has forged a reputation for its work in high-profile demolition projects across the country. In 1995, Sungdo Construction played a considerable part in the clean-up operation of the Sampoong department store in Seoul where, in the largest peacetime disaster in the country’s history, 500 people died after the building collapsed. It also later helped reshape the centre of the country’s capital in 2002 when it dismantled the 5km of concrete that was the Cheonggye elevated highway.

When faced with the task of demolishing the ten-storey hospital in the city of Changwon, Moon-gil believed the company could feasibly bring down the unstable and ageing building by opting to deploy a large excavator rather than placing a machine on the roof.

Moon-gil realised that by choosing the Volvo EC480EHR ultra high-reach excavator – the first of its kind to be used in the country – he could also achieve his goal of encouraging higher safety standards in Korea’s demolition industry as well as successfully completing the project.

Sungdo Construction’s CEO recalls how the construction business has been a ‘foundation’ of Korea’s post-war economic development – helping to propel it from one of the world’s poorest countries in the 1950s to one of the wealthiest – but feels, when it comes to safety regulations in the international construction industry, the country has not yet caught up with global norms.

“It is common practice in the Korean construction industry to lift a conventional excavator on to the top of a building and dig down, which increases the possibility of collapse,” Moon-gil explains. “High-reach demolition is safer for operators, as well as anyone else at the project site. And there are some projects where a normal excavator just can’t get the job done – this hospital demolition was one of them.”

The Volvo EC480EHR offered Sungdo Construction the extra height it needed with a 3.4m extension to the standard 28m long boom. As the first ultra-high-reach excavator in South Korea, Moon-gil believes that it will open the door to new opportunities for his company, in addition to elevating safety standards in the country.

Keeping Moon-gil and his team safe on the job, the ultra-high-reach excavator has a steel frame-mounted Falling Object Guard (FOG) cabin and reinforced windows to protect the operator from being struck by debris. Cameras on the boom, rear and sides of the machine allow for views of the entire work area.

Mun In-hwan, one of Sungdo Construction’s most experienced operators, says he could confidently use the excavator to bring down mounds of concrete and rebar. Over his 14-year career as an excavator operator, he has had ‘several close calls with death’. And as a father, he wants to feel sure that he will always be able to return home at the end of the day in the same condition he started.

“Doing the work without a high-reach machine would be really dangerous considering how unstable this building is,” he says.

Towering far above the 4m-high, aluminum barricades that surround the 18,000m² job site, the machine could not be missed. Fitted with a 3t sheering tool that can slice through metal and cement, In-hwan says he had never felt safer while on a job than when he was operating the excavator.

In addition to the safety features of the EC480EHR, the machine also has a dust suppression system, which was a real benefit considering the hospital worksite sits adjacent to the new Samsung Changwon Hospital.

Leading the way for the Korean demolition industry, Sungdo Construction has previously devised new demolition methods and founder Moon-gil hopes the use of high-reach machines will become standard practice. Though he realises that enhancing the quality and safety of demolition in his country will not come easy, he believes his position as chairman of the Construction Policy Committee, which is part of the Korea Specialty Contractors Association, will help him to improve industry standards.

“Not only did the high-reach excavator improve working conditions, it also increased our work rate,” said Moon-gil. “In seven days we were able to complete what would normally take ten days. I’m advocating for the implementation of new safety regulations. Once these are adopted, I hope the demand for more high-reach demolition machines, like the Volvo EC480EHR, will also increase.”