Independence Demolition Update

ArcelorMittal – Cleveland E.A.F. Demolition Project: Independence received a contract to raze various structures from ArcelorMittal at their Cleveland Works Plant in June of 2008. The removal was completed on time without any incidents in October of 2008.

The project consisted of razing the following structures: C-1 Blast Furnace Water Treatment Plant, C-1 Blast Furnace Slag Pit, No.1 Steel Producing Outdoor Scrap Craneway, Electric Arc Furnace Shop, Electric Arc Furnace Precipitator Building, Electric Arc Furnace Bag House and Overhead Duct Work, 3rd Street Gate House, 3rd Street Dispensary Building, Building 11A – Open Hearth Wash House/Computer Building, Seven (7) Brick and Steel Open Hearth, and Exhaust Stacks.

In total, Independence generated roughly 10,000 tons of recyclable ferrous steel and 84,000 lbs. of nonferrous metals.

We teamed up with B & B Wrecking to complete this project and used a composite crew to remove all structures. The most exciting drop was the setting-up and collapse of the Electric Arc Furnace Shop Roof.

It was a total pleasure working with John Sech, Engineer for ArcelorMittal – Cleveland, and his crew, as well as Precision Environmental Company and EnviroServe who performed all environmental abatement on the project.

First Energy - Toronto, Ohio Power Station Demolition Project: Independence Excavating, Precision Environmental and C.J. Betters Enterprises worked together for six months to obtain a contract from First Energy to completely raze all structures at their Toronto Power Station. The project consists of the following structures/components to be razed: 650’ Tall Concrete Exhaust Stack, Outdoor Super Structure Switch Yard, Coal Handling Conveyors and Transfer Towers, Elevated 125,000 gallon Outdoor Water Tank, Eleven (11) 230,000 Capacity Steam Boilers, Three (3) Electrical Turbines and their Condensers, 100,000-square-foot footprint Brick Boiler House Building.

Independence and Precision will be generating the following quantities of materials in the course of razing the above structures: 14,500 cubic yards of materials containing asbestos, 21,000 gross tons of ferrous steel, 400,000 lbs. of non-ferrous metals, 55,000 cubic yards of recyclable concrete and brick, 5,000 cubic yards of debris.

It is expected that it will take Precision Environmental 11 months with a crew of 40 people to complete all environmental abatement work, and Independence an additional 8 months to complete the removal of all structures and backfilling of all voids.

Presently, Independence has been working on the removal of the Outdoor Switch Yard, Exhaust Stack, Coal Handling and the Turbines.

We teamed up with Jim Redyke of Dykon Explosives to implode the concrete exhaust stack on November 1, 2008, and it fell without incident as shown here. The Discovery Channel filmed the falling of the stack, and it should air on television during the summer of 2009.

We look forward to completing this project around Christmas of 2009. We thoroughly enjoy working with C.J. Betters on these large demolition projects.