Located on a major street in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Bunge Grain Elevator properties sat vacant for years. The 4 block long property was in the middle of a future 66 block Re-Development Area.
The demolition of the Bunge Grain Elevator property includes the removal of all vertical structures, underground foundations / footings/ tunnels and related utilities. The vertical structures include 9 buildings, two truck scales, (2) 100 ft diameter steel tanks and 60 concrete silos with a total capacity of 1,909,000 bushels. The property spans portions of four city blocks and a railroad right of way. The scope of work involved determining the most cost effective method of demolition, along with an analysis of salvage and recycling activities that could be incorporated to provide savings to the city. Site restoration includes re-grading and preparations for future development by the city.
The 60 concrete silos were demolished with an 8 ton wrecking ball and the steel tanks were sheared and recycled. All concrete was crushed on site resulting in over 60,000 tons or recycled gravel, which was resold at the end of the project.
Many of the elevator equipment components, and much of the “Blue Steel” conveying systems, were salvaged and resold to other grain elevator companies for spare parts. Two of the metal buildings were deconstructed and sold to another company for reconstruction and reuse.
End result: diversion of 98.6% of demolition and deconstruction materials and a savings of over $1.2M on the budget.
Budget:$1.9M Actual Cost: $495,000
Services Provided:
- Demolition planning and Programming report
- Demolition/ Deconstruction plans and specs
- Pre-Bidding and Bidding services
- Inventory removal process
- On site demolition observation
- Additional services: management services for the salvage of building materials
Systematic deconstruction of each tower