Demolition begins on a 100-year-old building at Charleston’s Slack Street recycling center. A rainbow forms from the spray of a firehose used by Dust Suppressant Superintendent Joe Dewees, an employee of Rodney Loftis & Son Demolition.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — After years of problems and months of planning, the first bricks of the century-old building at the Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority’s Slack Street recycling center came tumbling down Tuesday morning.
An excavator pulled and pushed at the wall of the building closest to the public drop-off as another worker sprayed the site with water to control dust as bricks and metal fell two stories to the ground.
The teardown, which is being conducted by Rodney Loftis & Son Contracting, will take about three weeks to complete.
Most of the debris from the site is expected to be reused and some will fill the building’s two-story basement.
Once the building is gone, the authority plans to eventually construct a pole barn or similar building to cover the agency’s immediate needs.
For the authority, the teardown was as much a mental hurdle as a physical hurdle.
“This is a huge day…
