Demolishing San Francisco’s Bridges safely

Not only to develop an infrastructure even in demolishing any big infrastructure project has management played a crucial role. That’s why the good organization adopts this paradigm to be in safer side.

The Central Freeway Viaduct in downtown San Francisco suffered major structural damage during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and recently had to be safely demolished. The task was complicated because the bilevel, multispan bridge passed within six feet of heavily populated buildings, ran in the vicinity of both overhead and underground utilities(gas, water, electric and sewer lines), and crossed both commercial and residential areas with strict vibration and sound level restriction. Thus, managing the demolition while ensuring the safety of both the on-going population and existing facilities was a major challenge.

The primary tools for conducting  such a delicate, but dangerous operation were detailed planning and through communications with all related parties. An extensive Demolition plan was required and included:

• A Code of Safe Practice describing personal protective equipment for the workers, as well as maintenance plan for the equipment;
• A demolition sequence plan (sequence of work, staging, equipment location, restraints, safety structures, traffic control)
• A dust control plan
• Work-hour schedule
• Noise-level monitoring
• Load determination and structural analyses

Most of the demolition was accomplished using a breaker on the upper deck of the bridge and a pulverizer on the lower deck. First the roadway slab was demolished, then the girders were pulverized and all the debris pushed down to the ground. Then the cap, columns and restrainers were demolished. This process continued along the length of the bridge until the entire distance was conducted for noise, vibration, safety, and procedures throughout the project. Continuous communications was made with utility companies and other concerned with a particular segment being demolished. In this fashion, the entire viaduct was demolished with no major accidents or injuries.

The Olympic Torch Relay Project

Getting the Olympic Flame, known as the Olympic Torch Relay, to a destination City,  while Olympic Games is never been a simple matter.

Generally, The Torch Relay has gotten longer and more complex with every Olympic event. This complexity is driven by the realization of host-country citizens that it is a rare opportunity to have the Olympic torch pass through your hometown and the corresponding goal of the Olympic Committee to touch as many lives as possible in a positive way.

Planning for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Torch Relay took two years, cost over $20 million, and involved an 84 day, 42 state campaign using 10,000 runners to carry the torch for 15,000 miles! Accompanying the runners was a 40-vehicle caravan carrying security officers, media personnel, medical personnel, computers, telecommunications gear, clothing, food, and spare lanterns with extra flames in case the original torch went out.

The caravan included: 50 cellular telephone; 60 pagers; 120 radios; 30 cars; 10 motorcycles; and clothing for 10,000 runners, 10,000 volunteers as well as 2,500 escort runners.

However, the torch relay is also a major marketing campaign, primarily for the relay’s sponsors. Thus, accompanying the Atlanta-bound caravan were trucks hawking Olympic memorabilia: t-shirts, sweatshirts, baseball caps, tickets to the soccer matches, and on and on. In addition to retail commercialism, a number of companies were piggybacking on the torch relay to further their own commercial interests: IBM, Motorola, BellSouth, Texaco, BMW, Lee, Coca-Cola, and so on. All in all, a very successful relay due to the best in project management.

Come, Let us practice the project management!