The Arsenal Yards
The challenge for the Arsenal Yards.
The Watertown Arsenal was established in 1816 and the building Alpine was working on was built circa 1915 in response to the increased demand of World War I. Over 100 years of paint needed to be removed from thousands of feet of steel structural members to make way for new steel reinforcements and additional welding in order to bring the structure up to current building code. One of the main challenges Alpine faced with the Arsenal Yards project was, due to the magnitude and tight schedule of the overall project, we had to choreograph the abatement process for our crew of 12 to get our work done safely without impacting dozens of workers from other trades. Our work took over 3 months as we made our way across the 80,000 SF – almost 2 acre – floorplan. The other trades included steelworkers, welders, masons and demolition techs.
All the structural steel was prepped for repainting and thousands of feet of steel members were stripped to bare metal to allow for new steel to be safely welded in place.
How Alpine shaped the solution.
We broke the building into multiple zones and only worked in one zone at a time. This allowed other trades to continue working without impacting the schedule. Using a crane, we brought in six scissor lifts to provide safe access to the roof level workspace. HEPA filtered shrouded needle guns were used to do the stripping and mini containments were established on each of the scissor lifts to contain the lead paint dust as it was being generated. This system resulted in excellent control of the lead hazards and a flexible, efficient project schedule. The site is registered on the ASCE’s List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks and on the U.S.’s National Register of Historic Places and will be used as a mixed-use building for bio-tech businesses, retail shops, and restaurants.
client
Cranshaw Construction, Newton Lower Falls MA
project type
Lead Paint Abatement
location
Watertown, MA
