Demolition of Sinclair site could begin in two weeks

The city must still put the job up for bids, but crews may begin knocking down what's left of the Sinclair meatpacking plant in two weeks.

“It is technically approved already,” said Vince Clark, regional spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency,

“For all intent and purposes it's already approved work, pending the official notice” fire operations have ended.

That happened Wednesday morning, two weeks after the second fire this year left much of the complex little more than piles of rubble. Declared structurally unsafe after the June 2008 flood, the plant's demolition was planned after a fire in July wrecked the main structure at the 130-year-old complex.

Expected to take months, the process was expedited by the most recent fire. On Dec. 21 FEMA notified the city it would pay for the demolition if conditions are met - including open bidding for the job.

“We can't just continue on down the road on this and expect to get paid by FEMA” without taking bids, said John Riggs, assistant city building official and project manager for demolition at the Sinclair site and other flood-damaged buildings.

But that shouldn't take long. Riggs said he hoped to have a document defining the job's scope and the conditions bidders must meet ready for publication and online posting by early next week. The deadline for bidding would follow a week after publication and posting.

FEMA staff estimates the demolition will cost $10 million, Clark said.

“Two weeks from now, theoretically, we could be in demolition mode,” said Riggs.

If all goes as planned, Riggs hopes to have “90 percent of the complex on the ground in 90 days,” and the debris, including footings and foundations, removed by the end of 2010.

Contract conditions will include environmentally sound removal and disposal of asbestos. FEMA'S fast-tracking of the project means the agency won't require the usual close inspection of the buildings, but it's doubtful a 130-year-old industrial complex wouldn't contain the material, which is a health hazard if inhaled.

“It's too dangerous to go in looking for asbestos, so we treat it like it's full of it,” said Riggs.

Still to be determined: Whether the city must apply any or all of the $3.5 million insurance settlement from the July fire toward the demolition. Clark said FEMA usually requires insurance as a “first source of funding” for disaster cleanup, but the Sinclair site's case is complicated by repeated disasters - flood followed by two fires.

“That is one thing that's still kind of squishy, one thing they haven't made a final determination on,” he said.

Dave Zinser, president of D.W. Zinser Demolition of Walford, said his firm is ready to bid for the job.

“We have adequate equipment and manpower,” he said. “We can continue on whatever we need to do. Really, it's a slow time of year.”

Zinser said crews are “99.5 percent done” demolishing flood-damaged properties around the city deemed to be imminent health and safety threats.

Riggs said environmental assessments will begin in the next week or two on other flood-damaged properties slated for demolition.

At peak employment, more than 2,500 people worked at the Sinclair plant, which became Wilson & Co. in 1935. About 1,600 worked there for Farmstead Foods when it was closed in 1990. It was bought two years later by Central States Warehousing, which sold it to the city for $4 million in 2006.