Demolition Project
To make way for the new 1.0 million gallon water tower, the older 100,000 gallon tower needed to be removed from the site. The old water tower was built in 1978/79 and had served the community of Basehor's water needs until about two weeks before it was demolished.
The Water District tried find a user for the old tower through either selling or giving the tower to a community in need of a smaller water tower. It was quickly realized that, even as a gift to another community, there were no willing participants due to the cost of demolition, hauling and reconstructing the tower.
The method of removing the tower came down to demolishing the tank and hauling it away for scrap. Iseler Demolition Inc. from Michigan was called in to remove the tower. Iseler was the lowest company submitting a bid for the removal project. Iseler stated in their bid they would be able to demo and remove all components of the tower in one day. That they did. Crews from Iseler arrived at the site at 8:00 AM and were departing for their next job at precisely at 2:00 PM. Their advanced planning and preparation was the key to the swift removal of the tower.
Below are pictures taken by Water District staff during the demolition of the old water tower.
100,000 gallon water tower before demolision. |
Crews from Iseler Demolition Inc. arrive for the demoltion. |
Crews are preparing for demolision. |
Gases used by the demolition crew. |
30 minutes after arriving at the site, crews begin the demolition process. |
The first step in demoltion is to remove a leg from the tower. |
First leg falls as other legs are being weakened. |
A section of the center column is removed. |
The tower begins its fall. |
Falling. |
Falling. |
Perfect Landing. |
Demolition crews immediately swarm the tower and begin to cut at the steel. |
The four legs are some of the first pieces of steel cut. |
Two legs have been removed. |
Cutting begins on the center column. |
All four legs have been removed. |
As work on the legs continues, the bowl is being divided into smaller sections.. |
Sparks from the cutting torches were flying everywhere. |
The top half of the bowl is about to be removed. |
Just one of several pieces of the roof to fall. |
Work continues on the center column. |
The bowl continues to be dismantled. |
Work continues on the bowl. |
The first piece of the tower to hit the ground is being removed. |
Workers cut larger peices into smaller pieces to fit into trailers to be hauled off. |
Virtually nothing left of a 32 year old water tower. |
The tower is gone. It shoud be sitting just left of the gravel road in the distance. |
