The demolition can begin after the work of the site is completed at the Damen Silos, a collection of grain elevators dating to 1906 that conservationists and others consider a local Chicago milestone and that they have tried for years to save as an example of the historical role of the city in the grain industry.
The owner of the property in 2860 S. Damen Ave., which is next to the Chicago River, in the Southwest McKinley Park district, is Michael Tadin Jr. of MAT ASCHALT. He has hired the Henegà wreck in Chicago to demolish the five structures that make up the silos, built by the Trueka and Santa Fe railway in the early twentieth century and were abandoned in the late 70’s after an explosion.
The cost of the demolition contract has not been revealed. It covers two 10-story concrete silos, a floor masonry building and two pre-designed metal structures on a floor. Matus ASCHALT bought property in the State for $ 6.25 million by 2022.
Ald. Julia Ramirez (D), which represents 12th Ward where the silos are located, said in a recent Facebook publication that the Chicago Dept. Of Buildings (CDOB) and the Chicago Public Health Department (CDPH) signed the demolition permits on July 3 and that the process would begin after the July 4 holidays.
“CDPH and DOB will have the inspectors on the place daily to ensure that all appropriate security measures are taken,” said Ramírez. “The demolition of this place will be a mechanical demolition; explosives will not be used.”
Marlene Hopkins, the construction department curator, told a local news place that the silos will not be eliminated by explosion or implosion and that “they will be demolished by piece with excavators and high -reaching cranes.
The demolition of each building will begin from top to bottom and it is expected that the whole process will take at least six months, according to Hopkins, which adds that the demolition will stop if there are items on the river.
The United States Army Engineers also issued a permit in December 2024, allowing Chicago River water to be used to suppress dust during demolition.
Plans have not yet been announced on how 23 hectares will be re -owned.
)The Sitges de Damen are one of the last monuments remaining in Chicago’s historical domain in the national grain industry, “note Illinois on its website, adding that the purchase of the silos proceeded by 2022” despite the objections of local residents and defense organizations that have environmental problems about matte activities in McKinley Park. “”
The company operates an asphalt plant near the silos that residents claimed that they issued harmful smells in a class action demand that was resolved for $ 1.3 million in July 2024.
The demolition of another project to demolish a 95 -year -old smoke at a closed coal power station in 2020, raised a dust cloud that settled over the next village district. It has generally aware of awareness of the manipulation of complex demolitions. In this case, Chicago issued $ 68,000 in fines against Hilco’s redevelopment members and their demolition subcontractors, MCM Management Corp. and Cr. Demolition Inc., and placed a six-month moratorium on imposions, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
“We cannot and we will not repeat the errors of the past, and that is why complex demolition requires a strict review and public commitment in terms of their potential impact,” Hopkins told Enr.
He said that the contractor must provide a current survey with the horizontal differences of distance between the buildings to be demolished, a report of the structural conditions of the buildings to be devastated and a written security report and operations.
Recently, the neighbors of the Sitges have pressured to redevelop the redevelopment as a site of events similar to the Sal SED, which was formerly a Morton salt warehouse in Chicago and has been transformed into a concert enclosure that maintains parts of the original structure.
“I am disappointed that the private owner of the site will not save the structures to be replaced for adaptive reuse, as the community defends,” said Ramírez.
Neither Hennegan nor Matus Ashalt immediately responded to comments applications.
