Building removal contract awarded for Luckey site

A contract for $11.8 million to remove a building at the former Brush Beryllium site in Luckey has been awarded to Northwind Site Services, LC, Idaho Falls, Idaho.
The Buffalo District office of the Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing the clean-up of the site and said removal of the building is needed to provide access for the excavation of soil underneath it contaminated with beryllium, radium-226, thorium-230, uranium-234, uranium-238 and lead.
“We are pleased to begin the process to take this building down,” said Lt. Col. Eli S. Adams, commander of the Buffalo District. “The removal of this hazard is something the community has been requesting for a long time. During the deconstruction of the building, the protection of human health, including our site workers and the community, and the environment will be our highest priority.”
He said the building began to collapse earlier this year. It was used to produce beryllium from 1949 to 1958 under a contract with the Atomic Energy Commission. The Corps has been consulting with the Ohio Historic Preservation Office because the Luckey site is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Northwind Site Services will be required to submit plans to the Corps on how it intends to proceed with the project. Deconstruction is scheduled to start in early 2021 and is estimated to take about one year to complete.
In 2019, the Corps initiated the necessary legal process to enable removal of the privately-owned building. Sampling will be performed beneath the remaining site buildings to determine whether they will need to be removed or can remain on-site.
Meanwhile, soil remediation continues at the site. Excavation of the first phase area was completed in July and the second phase is about 38 percent complete.
Remediation of the entire site is about 39 percent complete.
Information tracking the progress of the clean-up is posted weekly at the Corps website.