Construction and works

DIGIDEMO

BUILDING DEMOLITION MATERIAL DIGITALISATION

THE DEMOLITION PHASE IS A KEY STAGE IN MAXIMISING CIRCULARITY OF MATERIALS AND PRODUCTS. In the Basque Country, 73% of Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) is effectively recycled and all directives and regulations are aimed at improving this percentage. In order to achieve a high degree of CDW recovery, reuse and recycling, demolition must be based on objective and accurate data on different aspects of the building to be selectively demolished and its surroundings. This context provides an opportunity to implement digital tools and methodologies that streamline and offer technical rigour to the pre-demolition study or audit.

LEZAMA DEMOLICIONES, a company specialising in industrial demolition and CDW management and recycling, has led DIGIDEMO, and TECNALIA Technology Centre has also participated in the project execution.

LEZAMA DEMOLICIONES
OBJECTIVES
  • Development, adaptation and real-life demonstration of a digital tool (BIM-SD) for accurate quantifi-cation of end-of-life materials in buildings.
  • A 3D model with semantic information for each demolition project, which allows viewing components and helps the decision-making process.
  • Optimal planning of demolition work.
  • Accurate quantification and improved management of resulting CDW.
  • Estimation of associated environmental impacts.
RESULTS
  • Implementation of expert knowledge, databases based on company equipment, environmental impacts and economic costs derived from demolition tasks, transport and final management of CDW.
  • Demonstration of the BIM-SD tool on a real-life demolition project. The results are useful for drawing conclusions and validating their commercial exploitation in future market projects.
  • Over a 3-year horizon, DIGIDEMO will enable the company to improve contract acquisition (+3-4 additional works) and turnover (+€2M) per year, as well as substantially improving its margin per work.
CONCLUSIONS
  • The digitalisation of buildings to be demolished is feasible in terms of time and costs when the right tools are available. Thus, modelling of a complete building (3 floors, 2,400 m3) was validated in two working days, including surface scanning, element generation and material inventory.
  • The digitalisation of the demolition provides a CDW forecast, with a deviation below 20% in mass, as well as an estimate of the environmental impacts and economic costs without significant increase in timescales for the preliminary study and works.
  • The results will be applied in future demolitions in the Basque Country, achieving 90% recovery of material resources, with greater waste traceability and lower economic costs.

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