LONGVIEW — The long-awaited destruction of a long-vacated, delapidated grain facility at the Port of Longview has begun.
Several excavators, cranes and other equipment were present on the site of Berth 4 as port leaders surveyed the site of the $5.48 million demolition project on Tuesday.
After 30-plus years of hoping to bring down the former grain silo complex, which at one point housed Continental Grain and served as one of the main economic drivers of the port, officials were finally able to take those key steps when they started tearing down the facility last month.
The multimillion-dollar project remained on the back burner because of the high price tag, Commission President Allan Erickson said, adding that because the port has seen such financial success in the last few years, his colleagues on the board decided to include it in the $56-million budget approved in November.
“The economics are here to allow us to do it,” Erickson said, adding with a smile, “and we get to take the credit for it.”
Commissioner Doug Averett said he has worked for decades at the port and saw the grain facility shut down in the late 1980s. Soon, he said, a long-standing staple of the port’s infrastructure will no longer loom over the other berths along the Columbia River.
“This is exciting for two reasons,” Averett said. “One, we’re treating this site and project honorably, and two, we’re looking to the future.”
Ken Cachelin, a project engineer at the port, said the project includes meticulously taking down the 40 individual silos and surrounding office buildings across the roughly 6-acre site.
Contractors with Vancouver-based Three Kings Environmental Inc. are heading up the project after getting board approval in March.
Commissioners originally delayed the demolition because they wanted more time to find eco-friendly ways to remove the buildings. Taking a wrecking ball to the structures may seem more efficient, commissioners agreed at the time, but ran the risk of sending concrete and steel flying into the Columbia River.
Instead, Cachelin said, they will use a remote-controlled excavator to take down the taller structures unreachable by a regular excavator.
The demolition is scheduled to be completed by November at the latest, Cachelin said.
“There are a lot of materials involved in this. … We’re making good progress,” Cachelin said.
History of Berth 4
Built in 1928, the grain complex was one of the first facilities to operate on the site, according to a Port of Longview information packet.
Continental Grain took over the lease from the Longview Elevator Co. in 1936, according to the port. The facility was expanded in 1945 and again in 1951, operating for the next three decades as one of the larger financial drivers of the port.
In 1989, Continental Grain shut its doors, leaving the expansive site to slowly decay.
“For sitting here for 30 years, it’s not in too bad of shape,” Cachelin said.
The space of the former grain elevator will serve as a perfect spot for new potential businesses, Commissioner Jeff Wilson said, which is why he voted in November to approve the $5.4 million demolition.
“It’s been a barrier to us for years,” Wilson said. “This is an investment to open up underutilized space, invest into the community and bring new jobs.”
No one knows just yet what type of business will move into the spot, Wilson said, and that will require many more discussions down the road.
