By Howard Wilkinson
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The glamorous part of Cinergy Field's demise is over. The grunt work starts today.

Hundreds of tons of recyclable steel and concrete must be cleared by Aug. 31. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

This morning, dump trucks of O'Rourke Wrecking Co. will rumble in and out of the Mehring Way access point to Cinergy Field to begin the months-long process of hauling away the pile of concrete and steel that was once home to the Reds and Bengals.

"The good news is that we got good fragmentation and good break-up when it fell,'' said Jeff Sizemore, project manager for O'Rourke Wrecking Co.

Mr. Sizemore and other O'Rourke officials walked in the rubble of the stadium only minutes after the 8 a.m. explosion and were pleased with what they found.

"It fell just the right way. It will make it a lot easier to haul out of there,'' said Mr. Sizemore. "Most of the concrete is just pulverized.''

O'Rourke Wrecking has until Aug. 31 to clear the site and turn it over to Hunt Construction Group, the construction management firm for Great American Ball Park. By summer 2004, the former stadium site will be home to the west concourse of the Great American Ball Park and a new building housing the Reds Hall of Fame.

But first, O'Rourke has 100,000 cubic yards of concrete, 600,000 square feet of masonry and 22,500 tons of steel to deal with.

Under O'Rourke's $5.7 million contract with Hamilton County, the demolition firm owns everything, including the 40,007 seats that were removed and sold to the public in the fall.

The steel will be taken to one of several area scrap dealers for recycling. The concrete will be crushed and recycled.

"Sooner or later, most of that concrete is going to end up as fill-in for roadways,'' said Mike Sieving, construction manager for Hamilton County. "Eventually, people will be driving on it.''

Before that happens, though, O'Rourke crews will have to separate the materials that now lie in a jumbled heap on what used to be the Cinergy Field playing surface.

Reinforcing bars have to be removed from concrete blocks and the concrete has to be "broken down as much as possible,'' Mr. Sizemore said.

"Fortunately, the implosion itself did a lot of that work for us,'' Mr. Sizemore said.

The stadium and the parking garage underneath contain enough concrete to build a four-lane highway 70 miles long. In October, O'Rourke began demolishing the garage, and has been hauling away concrete since.

About one third of the concrete is already gone, Mr. O'Rourke said. The rest, he said, will be gone long before the August deadline.

"Bringing down buildings is only one part of what we do,'' Mr. O'Rourke said. "The really big job is hauling it away. We won't waste any time.''

Email hwilkinson@enquirer.com

SEE CINERGY IMPLOSION
Animation from Enquirer photos
Video from WCPO
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