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Defense & missile sites · U.S. Air Force

Burying 220,000 lb blast doors.

Retiring about 100 missile silos meant dealing with a door on each one that weighs more than a loaded semi. Here's how our crews handled it.

Owner
U.S. Air Force
Sites
About 100 silos
Heaviest lift
220,000 lb blast doors
Work
Door removal, burial, silo closure
Delivery
Under budget, sites added
01The problem

A door too heavy to haul away

Each retired silo is capped by a steel and concrete blast door weighing about 220,000 pounds. Multiply that by about 100 sites spread across open country.

Moving doors that size off site is slow and costly. The Air Force needed the silos closed safely and the budget kept in check.

Excavator working at a missile site at sunrise
Early start at a silo site
02Our approach

Bury it where it sits

Instead of hauling each door away, our crews worked out a cost-effective method to deal with it on site. Dig a pit next to the silo, pull the door, set it in the pit, backfill and grade, then close out the silo.

Blast door set in a freshly dug pit Blast door being backfilled in its pit Set in the pitBackfill
Drag to compare: the door goes in, then the dirt goes back
03The result

Done for less, so the Air Force added sites

Fast work and a lower cost per site. Coming in under budget let the Air Force add two more sites to the contract.

Because of the fast construction and ability to work this project in an innovative way they were able to come in under budget and that allowed the Air Force to add two more sites to the contract.

U.S. Air Force

Bairco's ability to work difficult situations and adapt to them is unmatched.

U.S. Air Force

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