Chicago newspaper building starts to come down.
Crews began the demolition of the former News-Sun building yesterday. As explained by Dave Geertz, general superintendent from Batavia-based Alpine Demolition Services, the process of taking down the six-story building over the next two months will be performed with a figurative scalpel.
“What we’re going to do is surgically remove it. It’s not a brute-force thing,” he said around noon Friday, when a portion of the building’s north wing already sported a gaping hole.
Not that the job won’t feature its share of heavy machinery. Geertz said one notable piece of equipment involved is a high-reach excavator, the business end of which can extend up to 80 feet.
“It’s one of only three in the Chicago area,” he said. “Normally, they can reach only about 30 (or) 32 feet up, so this is more than twice that, and we can really reach into (a building).”
The main reason for the care being taken in clearing out the 44-year-old complex is that all possible material will be recycled. Foreman Joe Anaya and his crew of 10 workers began the job by stripping out all non-recycleable and combustible components like wood.
In coming days and weeks, passersby will see items bound for recycling piled around the fenced-in job site in the city’s parking lot D, including concrete, bricks and steel.
The building will be leveled to the ground and soil remediation will take place. The $799,000 project is clearing the way for the College of Lake County’s proposed $47.9 million expansion of its Lakeshore Campus, which currently sits at Genesee and Madison streets.
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