Cincy Cleans Up After Implosion

Former Riverfront Stadium is taken down; now recycling begins.

Downtown Cincinnati is now the site of a sizable demolition debris recycling project, after the successful implosion of the former Riverfront Stadium on Sunday, Dec. 29.

The long-time home of the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals was brought down by a series of explosions that caused the stadium to collapse inward onto the former playing field over a 37-second time span.

The former Riverfront Stadium, also known as Cinergy Field in recent years, served as home to Cincinnati’s football and baseball teams for 32 years, having opened in 1970.

But with a new football stadium already in place and a new baseball park nearly complete along the same stretch of the Ohio River, the stage was set for the demolition industry’s greatest piece of theater: the structural implosion.

According to a report in the Cincinnati Enquirer, 1,400 pounds of explosives were placed within the stadium’s 18 concrete structural supporting columns. The explosives were detonated in a sequence of blasts over a 37-second span that brought the stadium down one section at a time.

The stadium was brought down at a slower pace than some other recent stadium and arena implosions because of the presence nearby of a 140-year-old bridge over the Ohio River that might not have been able to withstand the shock of the stadium coming down all at once.

After the series of blasts, 135,000 tons of concrete and steel are now settled in a 45-foot-deep pit. The O’Rourke Wrecking Co., Cincinnati, has through the month of August to clear out and recycle the debris.

Before the implosion, more than 6,500 tons of metal were taken out and shipped to River Metals Recycling, which is taking in all the metal. Approximately 61,000 tons of concrete were salvaged for other construction projects.

Before the implosion, the company conducted a sale of seats, plumbing fixtures and other items for which there was a souvenir or re-sale value.

Once cleared, the site will be used for parking and will house a Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame building.

After the implosion, Jeff Sizemore off O’Rourke Wrecking told the Cincinnati Enquirer that the stadium’s collapse went as planned, leaving a lot of pulverized concrete dust but also some 22,500 tons of recyclable scrap steel and some concrete chunks that will be crushed and recycled.

O’Rourke officials estimate there is enough recyclable concrete in the former stadium and an adjacent parking garage that was torn down to provide road base for the equivalent 70 miles of four-lane highway.

Click on the following link for video of the implosion (you need Real Player on your computer to view this video). Implosion Video

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