Wilson Breaks Ground on Atlanta’s Glenwood Park

Tue August 19, 2003
Aggregate Equipment Guide

Preparation for the “footprint” of Glenwood Park, a project that has been deemed a “city within a city,” is currently under development by Green Street Properties LLC in east Atlanta. John W. Wilson Grading Inc., based in Fayetteville, GA, won the contract to provide the site preparation and infrastructure for the project, which at total buildout could reach a value between $150 and $200 million.

Glenwood Park, which has won awards for its design, is a 27-acre (10.9 ha) site, that when complete, will be transformed into a walkable neighborhood with a mix of tree-lined streets, city houses, townhouses, apartments, stores, restaurants, offices and parks.

Located at the corner of the Glenwood Connector and I-20, 2 miles east of the Atlanta’s downtown center, the chosen area was the site of the old Williams Bros. Lumber Co. as well as Williams Bros. Concrete.

“The entire site was covered with concrete and sawdust. There is a lot of leftover concrete that was poured on site from the previous concrete producer that we are excavating, crushing and recycling small enough to use as fill material on site,” said John Wilson, president of John W. Wilson Grading. “There also are other areas of unsuitable soils that we are removing and replacing with fill material and screened soil and compacting. The combination of these two elements is the biggest part of the job.”

Additionally, rail terminals, which originally were used for transporting materials, lined the property. After Williams Bros. vacated, other concrete recycling contractors, who would drop off concrete and recycle material on site, used the property. These companies crushed the concrete into gravel and resold it, leaving behind material.

In addition to all of the non-recycled concrete left behind, a large percentage of concrete that needed to be removed was from the old existing building foundations and the leftover poured cement. “Basically the whole site was covered in concrete and we’re using hydraulic breakers and processors to take care of crushing and recycling,” said Wilson.

To begin building the infrastructure, crews constructed a 12- by 12-ft. (3.7 by 3.7 m) by 2-ft. (.6 m) thick storm junction box to tie into the existing city of Atlanta system. Temporary lines were put in place to divert the storm water until the permanent lines can be placed around the perimeter of the site. John W. Wilson Grading will be installing more than 5,000 linear ft. (1,524 m) of storm pipe, which ranges from 15 to 72 in. (38.1 to 182.9 cm), as well as 8,000 linear ft. (2,438 m) of sewer pipe ranging from 6 to 18 in. (15.2 to 45.7 cm). Once the pipe is in place and the bypass is complete, the existing lines that run directly through the middle of the property will be removed.

The majority of the equipment being used on the project was purchased from Metrac. Crews are currently using a John Deere 330LC excavator equipped with an NPK breaker and a Hitachi EX200LC with an NPK concrete processor for concrete breaking and recycling. A pair of John Deere 450LC excavators are currently removing the concrete as well as moving dirt. John Deere 400C articulated trucks haul materials away on the site.

Other machines, which were purchased from Metrac, include John Deere 850 and 750C dozers, a John Deere 310 loader backhoe equipped with a small NPK breaker and two Dynapac rollers. Both John Wilson and project manager Darryl Adams, of John W. Wilson Grading, believe that the equipment is meeting the demands of this challenging project.

“Some of our challenges include major infrastructure work such as re-routing storm water lines and live 18 inch sewer pipe, some of which has a depth of 40 feet, around the job. Another challenge is the unsuitable soils, which include about 30,000 to 40,000 yards of sawdust that was buried and needs to excavated, filled and compacted as well as other areas that need to be undercut, refilled and compacted,” said Wilson. “The initial soil reports indicated that lots of debris and trash needed to be separated from the material to be used as on site fill. Also, there were some planning issues with many revisions of plans, which is not uncommon for a project of this size.”

Wilson said that as the project matures other contractors will be coming in for building a parking deck, restaurants, office buildings, town homes, as well as other structures. “Our purpose is to clean up the site and put in the infrastructure and grade to level,” he said, estimating that completion of his work will take nine months to a year, and the building phase should be ready early next year.

M.J. Lant Developments Inc., based in Suwanee, GA, is managing the entire project. “This is an environmentally-friendly project and the developer wants to minimize haul-off,” said Lant’s construction manager, David Radlmann. “To date, more than 11 million pounds of sawdust has been excavated and recycled for energy at an EPA approved plant. More than 170,000 pounds of metals have been excavated and recycled. A total of approximately 60,000 yards of concrete will be excavated and reused as on site fill.

“Once the buildings are started, the developer intends to recycle more than 80 percent of the building waste through the use of separating materials and utilizing separate dumpsters which will be sent out to be recycled,” he continued. “Products such as gypsum will be recycled into fertilizer, wood will be ground up for energy as well as landscaping, and metals and other products will also be recycled.

“The current infrastructure work is actually being done for the city of Atlanta to accelerate the project at no cost to the city,” said Radlmann.

For more information, visit www.glenwoodpark.com.

This story also appears on Construction Equipment Guide.