Processing demolition concrete without crushing noise with Lokotrack® Urban LT96™

“The Lokotrack is at least five times more cost-effective than the crushing bucket we previously used. Depending on the feed, the LT96 can crush up to 150–250 metric tons per hour,” says Marko Blinnikka, the Managing Director of PR-Urakointi.

“I must say that the Urban is truly quiet. The sound of crushing does not exceed the sound of the engine and you can talk right next to the machine without raising your voice.  Spraying water at high pressure into the crusher’s cavity and main conveyor prevents dust generation.”

“As an additional benefit, the Lokotrack’s magnetic separator removes reinforcing bars from the crushed concrete, so that we can use the clean crushed concrete for land filling, often at the same site,” Blinnikka continues.

20,000 metric tons of concrete turned into artificial fill

PR-Urakointi used its new Lokotrack Urban LT96 for the first time at Aholahti in Savonlinna. Approximately 20,000 metric tons of concrete from demolished buildings had been piled up in an industrial area. The pile contained reinforcing steel bars, some of them only as thick as your little finger.

After a couple of days’ practice, crushing with the new tool was effortless. Tomi Inkinen fed the concrete into the jaw crusher, Aulo Nemevalts immediately levelled out the crushed concrete artificial fill, and Jori Kettunen monitored the machine in operation.

Metso’s IC process control proved to be an excellent tool when getting to grips with the crushing process. The team was already well familiar with the different on-screen buttons after just a couple of days.

Consisting of pieces of concrete, bricks, and fines, the feed was crushed in the jaws of the C96 jaw crusher at a setting of 90 mm. The mountains of iron waiting to be recycled were an indication of the huge number of reinforcing bars contained in the concrete.

The processing of concrete does not require high crusher or diesel engine capacity. Consumption during crushing was around 13 liters of fuel per hour.

Demolishing bridges and buildings

Every year, PR-Urakointi performs a large share of all the demolition contracts available in Finland. These also include demolishing buildings.

“It will be interesting to see how the Lokotrack can handle the concrete used in bridges, which is much harder than the concrete used in buildings. In addition to more reinforcing bars, bridge concrete can contain up to 50% natural stone,” says Tomi Inkinen from PR-Urakointi.

One bridge may easily contain up to 5,000 metric tons of concrete to be demolished. The Lokotrack enables crushing on site, which results in savings in transport costs.

“When you’re demolishing a bridge, you must always know what you’re doing. Each bridge is a different story. Sometimes you have to perform the demolition work while cars are using one of the lanes, which is a whole new challenge,” Tomi Inkinen says.

Own development

PR-Urakointi has also been an industry pioneer in the development of demolition equipment. The company has developed an excavator attachment called the Power Dropper, which can be used to easily crush even the largest concrete slabs in bridges without disturbing the environment.

Furthermore, the year before last PR-Urakointi expanded its operations to more demanding asbestos stripping.