Fallsnewspress.com - Plaza demolition almost finished

RPC Photo / Robert J. Lucas Tab Baumann, project foreman for B&B Wrecking of Cleveland, looks at scrap metal his crew will haul away from the site of the former plaza, which is 75 percent demolished.

RPC Photo / Robert J. Lucas Looking south from the north end of the former State Road Shopping Center, crews continue to clear the 25-acre property purchased last summer by the city for redevelopment.

RPC Photo / Robert J. Lucas Workers for Jones & Associates Excavating of Akron compact clean soil that replaces contaminated soil that was removed from the site of the former Montgomery Ward auto service garage.

by Steve Wiandt

Reporter

Cuyahoga Falls -- State Road Shopping Center is quickly becoming a memory as demolition crews continue to tear down the buildings and haul away the debris.

The 25-acre piece of city-owned land that is being cleared will soon be taken over by development company Stark Enterprises. A development agreement is expected to come before City Council soon.

The Falls News-Press received a tour of the site Nov. 13, led by Jennifer Syx, the city's deputy director of community development.

When the demolition project -- now 75 percent completed -- began in late August, crews had 350,000 total square feet of buildings to level. Buildings that are still standing south of Portage Trail look like the backdrop for a movie about the end of the world.

Many of the store windows were broken out. Through the glassless window of a deserted beauty shop, a stack of framed posters depicting people with stylish haircuts could be seen leaning against a wall.

All of the buildings north of Portage Trail are down. The northern section of the plaza included JC Penney and Montgomery Ward. Soil remediation is being completed in the area of the former Montgomery Ward automotive service center.

In September, the city awarded Jones & Associates Excavating of Akron the contract to perform soil remediation at a cost of $249,995.

"Basically, they took away the dirty [soil], kept the clean and then brought more clean in," explained Jennifer Syx, the city's deputy director of community development, "and now what they're doing [on Nov. 13] is compacting it and leveling it."

Syx said the excavators follow specific compacting requirements to ensure that the ground doesn't sink later.

Nearby, a worker for B&B Wrecking of Cleveland operated a piece of machinery with a jack hammer-style chisel to break up the concrete floor and foundation walls in the basement of what was once the Montgomery Ward department store.

Good environmental practices are being used as part of a $2 million Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund grant the city received in May, Syx said. Re-using clean concrete saves money and resources.

"When all the asbestos is lifted, clean concrete is crushed and used for fill and all the bad stuff is abated and hauled away," she said.

"Asbestos removal was the first activity to occur at the site, which began on Aug. 3," said Susan Truby, director of community development.

State Road Shopping Center was built in the 1950s when asbestos was widely used in building construction, Truby said. "Therefore, asbestos materials were prevalent throughout most of the buildings."

As crews prepared to start tearing down the plaza south of Portage Trail, they discovered more asbestos.

Asbestos cement boards known as Transite were found bolted to wooden planks behind the front canopy along the entire length of the south end of the plaza, said Syx.

On Oct. 26, City Council approved change orders to cover the cost to remove more asbestos. The change orders increased the cost of the city's contract with B&B Wrecking from $813,000 to $993,000, said Truby.

Despite this setback, a representative of the wrecking company expects to finish demolition by Nov. 30. Tab Baumann, project foreman for B&B, said he and six other men are working to get caught up.

"We're doing the best we can, as fast as we can," said Baumann.

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