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10:28 AM
Robert,
Thanks for your comments. You are one of the reasons I keep coming back to read.
2:43 PM
October 7, 2005
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That's why if you are planning to implode a structure you should get a performance bond from the explosives subcontractor equal to the amount it will take to demolish the structure conventionally. It's cheap insurance.
A 5,000 pound wrecking ball that's finally starting to topple the state's tallest building.
Crews started demolishing the Zip Feed Mill, making steady progress on the south side of the building.
Project manager Eric Schuler says, "They're taking slow whacks at it. Not every blow will take a big chunk of concrete out. So it just takes a little here and there to bring it down."
The wrecking ball is targeting the weaker areas of the structure first to collapse the columns. The job could take a couple weeks.
I have heard the additional demolition will run about $500K
1:01 PM
October 7, 2005
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It wouldn't be fair for me to comment because I wasn't there but I can tell you what typically happens when a grain evlevator fails to fall. A lot of times there just isn't a sufficient amount of "drop" to the structure. Most grain elevators of head houses have columns only in the basement and on top of the columns are transfer beams or thick slabs which in turn support the bins. If you don't get the thing moving quick enough it will squat on you. Another problems occurs when there isn't sufficient structural support in the hinge row of colums. When this is the case, the hinge row collapses, the elevator isn't allowed to rotate and it squats.
12:33 PM
Robert,
What do you think went wrong? I mean I know the building didn't fall but just curious on your opinions. I have always heard that grain mills are some of the hardest to bring down.
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 titled to the east and dropped about thirty feet before stopping where it sits now.
Henry Carlson Project Manager Eric Schuler says.
1:20 PM
October 7, 2005
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Well, I do know a thing or 2 about implosions. I've been doing them for 20 years now. It's the blasters call but usually it will only be delayed becasue of low cloud cover, fog or thunderstorms. With low cloud cover, the air overpressure can not escape so it travels up, hits the clouds and returns to the earth where it rebounds upward again and again.......al the while moving outward from the demolition site like ripples on a pond. It has the potential to break a lot of windows.
Cold doesn't usually affect blasting operations and it tends to reduce the size of the crowds attending the demolition. I worked on a project one time where the standing temperature was -40 and the wind chill was -120.
Snow is usually a good thing for an implosion because a little bit of snow can hide a lot of dust. By the time it melts all the dust is gone 
12:47 PM
Robert, you seemed to know a lot on implosions. Will they delay the implosion due to the cold or the snowy weather?
7:51 AM
October 7, 2005
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Grain elevators can be tough old birds from a demolition standpoint. At least this one has the height to slenderness ratio going for it.
[size=2]Here is a website that has a live feed. Not sure if they are showing the implosion live or not. It will be interesting since there is a major storm in the Plains and Midwest states if the implosion will get delayed.[/size]
3:09 PM
October 7, 2005
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Las Vegas on New Years Eve. Thye closed down th strip and had the Allman Brothers playing a concert. Then at the stroke of Midnight they had Michael Buffer say "Leeet's get ready to Cruuuuuumble!" and then the button was pushed. :rolleyes:
9:51 AM
October 7, 2005
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Thats pretty impressive considering the entire population is only 100,000 or so. The biggest crowd I ever experienced at an implosion was 40,000 or so and that was a zoo.
They are saying as many as 20,000 people could pack downtown Sioux Falls December 3rd to watch the Zip Mill Feeder crumbling down. I would say officials have their hands full with a crowd like that.
Preparing the 210-foot Zip Feed Mill for demolition takes more preparation than you'd probably expect. Crews with Frattalone Company out of St. Paul have been hard at work getting the building ready. The Zip Feed Tower is being cleaned out and crews are currently working at removing some of the interior walls. Next week, the single story buildings on the outside of the structure will be removed. And then, one to two weeks before the demolition, 20 to 30 feet of both the inside and outside walls will be removed, leaving only the columns. Holes will be drilled and that's where the explosives will be placed. "If we don't do the prep work with removal of small buildings and the interior walls and exterior walls, just makes the building easier to tip...similar to chopping down a tree. You take a wedge out of one side," explains Eric Schuler, Henry Carlson Company.
The mill is no longer the impressive structure it was in it's day. The building isn't even all that safe, but, a long, dark walk up some 20 flights of stairs will take you to the top of the building and offer you an impressive view of the city. A view not many people get to see, and a view that won't be around for too much longer. "It's obviously a pretty neat project," says Schuler.
It's going to take about one hundred pounds of explosives to bring the building down and when it falls, it's going to fall east toward the railroad tracks. "I'm honored to be involved in it. It's kind of a once in a lifetime deal," says Schuler.
The tallest building in South Dakota will come tumbling to the ground amid great fanfare on Dec. 3, and the owners of the property plan to use the event to raise money for the fight against multiple sclerosis.
The old Zip Feed Mills tower is being demolished to make room for a $15 million office and retail development and possibly a new events center.
Zip City Partners, which owns the 210-foot building and surrounding property, plans to turn the demolition into a major downtown event and a fund-raiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
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