Demolition at wastewater plant may get underway
Officials said late last week that demolition of a building at Lewiston, ID Wastewater treatment plant could begin this week.
The explosion and fire that gutted a control room at the North Lewiston plant on January 20 left it too damaged to try to fix.
"It was decided that, due to costs that it would be quicker and more efficient and money better spent to at least take down a portion of the building, that could potentially damage the two digesters that are tied into it," said Public Works Director Chris Davies.
You don't have to be a building inspector to see the problem, as steel rebar is about the only thing still holding up the south wall.
Davies said if the walls were to cave in, the two digesters, or storage tanks, adjacent to the building, would also be damaged. He said they hope for crews to come in soon to start taking it down piece by piece.
"What we are looking to do is to take of the roof of control building number one, and the south wall, and then a portion of the floor," he said. "We would end up stopping at the point and reassessing it."
Officials still have not pinpointed an exact cause of the explosion and fire, but believe it to be related to a gas leak. Davies estimated the damage to be in the $3-5 million range.
Davies is now waiting to hear from the city’s insurance company's structural engineer for the go-ahead to start demolition. That will most likely
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