CEPRO Grain Elevator Demolition
Jim Wutzke, Frattalone Companies

Jim Wutzke writies, "As an industry, we always see the explosive and excavator demolition stuff and I thought you might find a crane job interesting."

"We just finished dropping a grain elevator in Minneapolis, MN for Hennepin County Property Management. The reinforced concrete CEPRO grain elevator was built in the 1920's. The top of the head house vent stack was 200 feet above the surrounding street. A 100 year old bridge and high voltage electrical wires passed within 30 feet of the head house. Single family residences (with children) are immediately adjacent to the site. In fact, we had to remove 3 houses to get enough room to work. We had a threshold limits of one part per million total dust and .5 inch PPV seismic vibration at the site perimeter. This was monitored and vigorously enforced by the owner's representative."

"We had considered using explosives to drop the head but the dust and vibration limits made it unfeasible so we went up after it. we demolished the silos and used the concrete debris to build a pad for the crane. We used a 999 American with a 6000# ball, a 375 cat hoe, a 235C Cat hoe with a Labounty pulverizor, and a Cat 988 loader on the project. The concrete will be recycled on site and used for a county owned bicycle path."

The contract value is $387,000.00

To have your project featured, contact Herb Duane at herb@rubblemakers.com