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Highway Patrol Gun Range Maintenance/ Remediation Project
MARCOR technician in PPE works in backstop area.
The three backstop sizes were as follows:
#1 Multi Purpose Range - 90’ L x 12’ H
#2 Indoor Range (canopy covered) - 120’ L x 12’ H
#3 Outdoor Range - 120’ L x 12’ H
Related Services
Under a multi-year semi-annual contract, MARCOR performed bullet fragment recovery, cleaning, and restoration of indoor and outdoor firing ranges (#1, #2, and #3) at the California Highway Patrol (CHP) training facility. All of the ranges utilized rubber backstop media to capture the fired bullets – over 300,000 rounds of ammunition per month. Rather than removing all of the lead-contaminated media for disposal, which is costly, MARCOR utilized its patented pneumatic separation unit (PSU) and other equipment to separate the spent bullets for recycling and return the cleaned rubber media for reuse.
Equipment included a vacuum truck, air compressor, PSU, skid steer loader with forks, drums, pallets, and other items such as rakes, shovels, hoses, and poly sheeting. Once the equipment and production area were set up and demarcated, all personnel wore appropriate personal protection equipment (PPE) to begin removal of the bullet-laden media from each backstop. PPE included half-face respirators, Tyvek® suits, hearing protection, leather gloves, steel-toe shoes with covers, safety glasses, and hard hats.
In a continuous operation, the rubber/bullet material was sucked into the PSU, where the lighter-weight rubber media flowed up a tube and into the tank of the vacuum truck via hosing. The much heavier bullet fragments dropped out of the tube onto a conveyor and on to a secondary classifier (to blow out excess rubber) and then into a steel, 30-gallon drum. As one drum was filled, another was put in its place.
MARCOR’s technicians reinstalled the processed rubber media, HEPA-vacuumed all areas in front of the backstops, and conducted a general cleanup of the surrounding grounds. In addition, they replenished feed hoppers with pre-staged media and procured 25,000 pounds of ballistic rubber for range #1. The high-clarity bullet fragments were sent to a smelter for recycling, and monetary return to the customer. (Up to 6,000 lbs. of bullet fragments were recovered during each maintenance period.)
