Removing a 135-ft Water Tower

There might be a threat to the legs or the tower's foundations in dropping chunks of metal 5ft square right down the middle of them!

There might be a threat to the operatives clearing the chunks from the bottom if the dropping activity is not co-ordinated!

Do get the Client to approve the Method Statement in advance of the work starting.

there is plenty of room not to hit the legs with the falling pieces as long as the legs will stand full length without being connected to the other legs and i will have a grappel truck there when the metal pile gets built up he can pull out and load just wondering if this will be safe way of doing it the only way to bring it down is in pieces can't use a crane or blow it up,or use the cut it down like a tree method

Do get the Client to approve the Method Statement in advance of the work starting, and make sure there is plenty of indemnity insurance cover.....

look, it's obvious you're gonna do this your way...before you cut away....

so, , attach a clevis bolt and a cable .... lower the 5 X 5 don't just " card " them..i'd use 3 cable's and have the two guidemen on the ground keep tension... to keep the 5 X 5 from flying around...

if your basket will support your weight and the panel;s weight use the basket controls to lower the panels..cut the panels to ensure the weight limit is not exceeded...

but ..

if you hurry , you might just not like the results...

but then again.......

Sorry i have always played dumb and listened to the smartest person.that was just an idea and has not been set in stone. What about a slide cable from uppertower to the ground, chain up pieces to a slider cut loose let it slide following path of the cable to the ground,safe enough?for the one wondering about how to get the torch up the tanks hose and me will be in the basket and under will be under the 750 lb weight limit. today i got a price on a crane and that will probaly be the way i go.just trying to figure out a safe way to use gravity.and i have asked a couple guys that put em up,they said the legs bolted into the concrete just stand on their own in full lengths without being connected to the others. just wondering if anyone had simular experences with such a project.

Thank God you adviced him right. Now I feel safe to walk under it.

I'm with Bricktop on this one. This project looks like it is in the same category as do it yourself open heart surgery. Now if this water tower were located on a shoreline in Bangladesh you'd have no trouble finding help.

Ed Weldon

It is good to try to do things that you don't know how to do.

Whenever I try to do things I don't know how to do, I hire experts.

If the client won't pay for me to hire experts, I quit.

Truly, for some reason your question is disturbing.

Draining the water ought not be some mysterious thing to do, but would be the first thing to do.

If you think the legs might fall inward, they might fall inward, etc.

If a crane is really called for, make a place for it.

Something in the tone of your post caused me to vote with Bricktop.

I agree with Bricktop that you are getting in over your head but I'll suggest that you find a retiree with experience in the area and hire him as a temp. Do what he tells you to do and chalk up his salary as a learning experience.

You've got to learn some time but getting killed doing it doesn't help....

Use dynamite!

If you do it at all, every stage needs be under full control.

Sounds obvious, but things don't always "fall" as they were planned.

Staff working high up need safety harness and instruction -
even a small fall can result in a broken back. (I knew of one.)

Consult (pick the brains of) experts; a few phone calls will advise.
i.e. don't be blinkered or blinded by false self confidence. (insurance?)

Consider alternative methods; ie could it be perforated into panels
and then demolished so they fall apart? How would the experts do it?

Lastly, act in haste and you'll have plenty of time to regret! Take care!

jt.

Let's have another cup of tea; that's the trouble with Fred, he's too hasty.

Also - please hire some extras to shoot the video for us

What is the weight (empty) of the tank? It is possible to cut the tank circumferentially into pieces that can be lifted by either a crane or heavy lift helicopter. This would be similar to cutting down a tree from the top down.

Easiest solution is to sell the tank to the highest bidder and let them deal with it. Even if you only get a dollar, it is still cheaper than the cost to remove.

I believe the Guest should also consider that, with only 10% excess height on the man lift, the truck will be VERY close to the drop zone. Do you really not expect any bounce or ricochet from the concrete slab? I think a collapsed boom truck and rapid 13-story descent might ruin everyone's day (except the creators of the Darwin Awards).

Most water towers in the US are built using a tower crane, assembled on-site up through the center of the tower. If you can get a 150' boom truck to the site, you should be able to get the crane pieces in there. I strongly recommend you consider that route. If you feel you must attempt this lunacy, you could use the tower itself as a crane:

1. Make sure your access holes are evenly spaced, and at least the same amount of connected steel is left between the holes.
2. For each piece to be removed, weld a lifting eye to the inside top of the piece, and to the remaining steel just above the piece. Both eyes (and the welds) should be designed to hold at least 5x the weight of the piece.
3. Cut the entire upper boundary of the piece.
4. Mount a chain hoist on the upper eye, and connect the hook to the eye on the piece. Using the hoist, take up the slack and place a slight tension on the chain.
5. Cut the piece free.
6. Use the hoist to gently lower the piece to the ground.
7. As you remove pieces, there will be less and less upper support available. Reduce the size of the pieces to compensate for the lower capacity. Also, as the strength of the tank is reduced, you need to consider the bending moment that an off-center weight will cause. If the remaining strips are not be stiff enough to withstand that bend, the structure will fold and collapse catastrophically. Don't forget that the dynamic stress caused by a swinging piece can be many times the static weight.
8. The last few upper pieces will have to be dropped, but they must be small enough (ideally > 100 kg) to stay where they land without much bounce.

One last item: Please take out a US$1M life insurance policy, payable to me.

I'd say this Guest has contributed quite a good deal of solid operational advice.

If it was my job, I'd hire them.

Hire me, and I'd hire them.

Once in the bottom of a ship we were scrapping I was asked to rig a barrel full of metal.

I told the boss, "I had a bad dream about this last night."

He looked at me and said, "I'll get you some help."

If you can't get Guest, write a PM and I'll give you that guys number.

I think one thing that set me off was you made no mention of how to get cutting torches up there, or any mention of considerations for gas lines to them, and that weight involved.

As well it is very unwise to use any tool, like a boom truck, lull, crane, or human being to their maximum limits, and it sounds as if that was where you were headed.

Every seen a boom truck basket post explosion?

LPG cylinder vs power lines and two guys in basket = danger to teh lifecycle. One body was over 100m fro the truck, the other we only found pieces.

Gas cylinders at the truck, always. People have even hung live torches over the bottles. Or broco it, just need generator and o2 then.

Sorry i have always played dumb and listened to the smartest person.that was just an idea and has not been set in stone. What about a slide cable from uppertower to the ground, chain up pieces to a slider cut loose let it slide following path of the cable to the ground,safe enough?for the one wondering about how to get the torch up the tanks hose and me will be in the basket and under will be under the 750 lb weight limit. today i got a price on a crane and that will probaly be the way i go.just trying to figure out a safe way to use gravity.and i have asked a couple guys that put em up,they said the legs bolted into the concrete just stand on their own in full lengths without being connected to the others. just wondering if anyone had simular experences with such a project.sorry i mis worded that the tanks when i'm using the torch will be mounted to the catwalk with 100 ft of hose and torch will be kept out of the basket so gas build up in the basket is not a worry,anyone have the formula to figure half inch piece of steel 5ft by 5ft in 60 mph winds would diverted by how my feet.i have dropped many flat pieces from 75-90 ft up seemed like a little winds nothing bad and for the most part they went straight down,hum how far off corse could a piece get if it it had no left or right force but just air displacement,would a 2ft by ten ft have less glide to it? i will measure the distance it can fall off corse before hitting the fence. i have some room there,just wanted to know if structuraly this way will be safe?like if i cu out one whole half of th very top do i have to worry aout it getting whopsided and fall over? this tank has 8 legs so it seem like it should have plenty of support to keep from falling over, i hope that someone here ad helped build one or have taken one down. sliding down on a cable seems like a controled way of dropping it,what do you think about that?

i am assuming that you have been caught in under bidding the job. hopefully you can afford lots of acetylene and oxygen. i would just cut much smaller pieces, maybe two by two(feet). the holes in the bottom of the tank sound ok but cut them out in small chunks also. it sounds like you dont have any cross bracing on the legs? as you get the tank cut down to the tank floor i would be on the floor of the tank and cut out one leg of the base OPPOSITE from the man lift. probably chain it to the two adjacent legs so if it springs after the cut it wont take down your escape route or fall wildly to the ground outside you "drop zone". this will give a hint as to what the remaining legs will do. if that "works" then cut the remaining floor of the tank out. seems that chaining all the legs together for support and sliding the support chains down as you cut the legs would be a good idea, well maybe not, how about welding some cross braces in between the legs to keep them straight while you cut them into small pieces and drop them into the center of the assembly. as for draining it ...... the drain valve????' what ever you do, please make a multi angle video........

Another problem is the 500,000 gallons of water. you will have a swamp for weeks unless it's piped away.

Wonder how this project is going, or how it turned out.

Update the tank is now empty. We will be starting in a few days.What i have decided to do is use a crane and man lift cut out circles from top center out and down and i tricked my old lady in fliming the whole deal.i have done a great deal of research, talked to a tank builder he told me the best controled way to bring it down is just un build it from top down ill stay in touch let ya know hows its going, now if i can just get over being affraid of heights..........hehe well gotta run 4 now

Sounds much better.

From first I thought a Crane was called for.

Rule is, one hand for yourself, and one for the work.

Pick good weather.

Stay tied off, and take time to not trip over your own lines.

Some others may have other suggestions.

Proper shoes may be helpful.

We do not expect good film, or video for really that would call for a professional to be with you.

In such situations myself, as much as I love to film, and video, I couldn't do it for I was preoccupied with watching out for my men.