West Soma, San Francisco

Project Description

The West Soma project consisted of the removal of two warehouse like structures in San Francisco. Built in 1907, the construction of the building featured unreinforced brick masonry walls, metals trusses and a corrugated tin roof.  It was previously occupied by a BMW dealership and a German Motors Collision center. The demolition scope included the following:

• Managed and supervised a remediation subcontractor to remove all the asbestos and lead containing materials prior to starting the structure demolition.
• Installed tilt braces to support the perimeter walls prior to removing the roof diaphragm. We also assisted the steel subcontractor to help them install the permanent steel to support the section of the walls that remained.
• Deconstructed 75,625 SF of roof structure in its entirety while maintaining the perimeter walls intact. We then removed the slabs, footings and 454 LF of the brick walls slated for demo, which was approximately half of the perimeter walls of the building.
• Salvaged 88 pallets of brick for reuse onsite. We cleaned the brick, removed the mortar, and stacked them on pallets for the concrete mason. The bricks were used to rebuild section of the walls. Each pallet contained 500 bricks.
• Buccaneer Demolition hired an environmental consultant to help us permit, decommission and remove eight underground storage tanks (UST). Two UST’s required extensive shoring to remove the tanks. We hired a structural engineer to design a shoring plan so that we can remove the tanks without disturbing the street paving. We vibrated and installed 30’ deep sheet piles to help prevent the sidewalks from caving in. Additionally we worked closely with PG&E to design a bracing plan to support an active gas line while removing the UST.