Watching CNN this afternoon I caught the end of a report on a grain elevator implosion…that went wrong! The reason I found this interesting is that this past summer I saw the huge elevator in downtown Sioux Falls, SD. And seeing what a great view I had of it, decided to take a picture…so I did, and I’m glad I did. Little did I know that the building was to be demolished. The huge elevator had several tracks leading to it, it was served by BNSF Railway. I posted the picture of the elevator a few days after I took it in Sioux Falls and posted it here on RailRoadFan.com, so now it’s history
. Below is the whole story about the demolition:
Since it was announced that the Zip Feed Building would be demolished, many of you have been asking how and with what? Thanks to our graphics department we're able to show you what demolition experts are hoping will happen when the walls come tumbling down.
It stands alone, empty, quiet, but heavily guarded. The inside of the Zip Feed Building is packed with one hundred pounds of explosives.
Soon it'll be reduced to nothing more than a pile of rubble.
Eric Schuler, project manager of Henry Carlson said, "There will be a countdown set up over where they'll be pressing the button to set off the blast."
One lucky person will get to push that button, which is actually a two step process. You turn this knob to arm the explosives, this button then sets it off.
Even though it's a simple plan by demolition crew standards, workers have been planning for weeks how best to bring down the 200 foot fortress of a building.
"When it explodes, there won't be much dust or debris flying or anything like that. "
That's because the fire fighters will first hose down the area. And the bottom columns, filled with explosives, will be wrapped in chain link fence.
If all goes according to plan, this is what demolition crews think will happen.
There will be 3 sirens indicating to everyone the area has been cleared. One will go off at five minutes prior to the explosion, then three minutes and finally one minute.
They want the building to fall to the east, so they've drilled 96 holes on the eastern half of the building, six in each column. Each will be filled with explosives.
On the western half of the building, crews have cut a straight line through the remaining walls and rebar, just above the foundation.
When the explosions go off in the east side columns, the building will immediately lean that way toward Weber Street.
That will make the entire building drop about 15 - 30 feet.
Once the process begins, experts say it'll only take a matter of seconds to bring down a building that's stood as one of Sioux Falls' most obvious landmarks.
"The blast will be spread out, but it'll be milliseconds apart so it's going to sound like one big blast, " said Schuler.
And when it topples, it won't implode inside itself, it'll fall like a tree that's been cut down.
Expect the ground to shake, but not enough to cause collateral damage to any of the nearby buildings. It should be a crowd pleaser.
"We are going to have a lot of people downtown and want everyone to get a good view and we want everyone to be safe and help us out by not pushing the barriers. "
The Zip Feed Building has been biggest building in the state for decades, but now it's about to become KELOLAND'S biggest spectacle at least for one moment in time.
The latest on the story:
What was supposed to be a simple implosion turned out to be a bit of a blunder. The Zip Feed Mill destruction is not over.
The building is still standing after a scheduled set of blasts on the east part of the structure failed to topple the structure. The building tilted to the east and dropped about thirty feet before stopping where it sits now.
Henry Carlson Project Manager Eric Schuler says. “The building sat down into the basement.”
Schuler says crews will attempt to finish the demolition Monday with more conventional methods. Wrecking balls will be used to finish the job.
