CDI’s Stacey Loizeaux gives an insight into next weekend’s blast.
About 400 pounds of dynamite will bring down the 18,800 tons of reinforced concrete, metal and other materials that make up the former City Hall, the demolition experts who will demolish the building said.
“The City Hall structure is a fairly new and structurally robust building that is actually much easier to implode than lesser, more deteriorated or damaged structures,” said Stacey S. Loizeaux, one of the members of the Loizeaux family’s Controlled Demolition Inc., the company contracted to tear down the 34-year-old building. “As a result, it’s really a fairly simple project from our perspective.”
The 10-storey building is scheduled to be torn down at 9 a.m. April 14, just one day after the Asarco smelter smokestacks are to be brought down — forever changing the El Paso skyline.
City Hall opened as the city’s headquarters in 1979, and its demolition is the final major step in clearing the 5.5-acre site to make way for a new Triple-A minor league baseball stadium.
The demolition of the former City Hall and the Insights El Paso Science Center, which was torn down in mid-March, is being handled by Grant Mackay Demolition Company under a $1.5 million contract with the city. The contract is part of the $50 million ballpark construction cost.
Controlled Demolition, subcontracted to implode the building, mobilized its preparation crews last week and will bring the implosion crew to El Paso this week, Loizeaux said.
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