Connecticut housing project saves transport costs by recycling and reusing C&D waste on site

As a long-time Rockster distributor on the east coast of the U.S., Equip Sales & Leasing Corp. has helped build a user base for Rockster crushers, and their renting program has enabled the realization of many projects. When rented, the crusher comes with a trained Rockster operator to reduce the pressure on the renter and to make sure the project is executed with the highest possible efficiency. 

The latest project has been commissioned by the city of New Haven in Connecticut, with a mission to demolish a number of low-income houses in order to make room for new and improved ones. SRC Construction has been the appointed contractor. The company is familiar with Rockster machines and decided once again to go with the R1100S track-mounted impactor for the job.

On-site recycling

One of the main questions when it comes to demolition projects is where will all the material go. In order to minimize the costs of transport and deposit of end-material some recycle it on the spot. Others might have to transport the material from the demolition site to another external site.

For the project in New Haven, recycling on-site and reusing the final material on-site proved to be an efficient and cost-effective solution. Not only are there saved costs, yet there is an added value in the very production of aggregate on-site. Recycled concrete with a feeding size of roughly less than 500 millimetres (up to 20 inches) has been recycled to a 31.75 millimetre (1.25 inch) final product and later used for the new building sub-base. The Rockster R1100S, driven by a 380HP CAT engine in combination with a hydrostatic drive system, was processing continuously about 1400 tons of material per day and the project took only one month to complete.

Rockster's dust suppression system

The demolition site was located in a residential area and right across the street from the backyard of a school where children play daily. Because of how close the demolition site was to residential areas, a dust suppression system was needed.

"The Rockster R1100S was perfect for this job. It was across from a school, so the impactor performed great with the dust suppression system. No dust contaminates left the job site," says Tim, an Equip Sales operator who oversaw the project.

A compact and mobile system

"Being mobile worked very well for moving across the site," says Tim.

The R1100S is a compact and tracked machine that is easy to transport. It has compact dimensions and is a lighter machine. On the project, the R1100S needed to move around the job site to crush pieces of concrete from different houses. The operator used a radio remote control to move the crusher from one spot to the next.

"The R1100S is equipped with a standard magnetic separator. That way I know the iron rebar from the reinforced concrete will be removed and the customer is getting clean material," says Operator Tim.

A vibration feeder with a two-step prescreen, an adjustable bypass chute, crusher overload protection, sound-insulated engine housing, and a central control unit with a colour display are some of the other features of the R1100S impact crusher utilized on the job site.