The demolition of the checkerboard Latham water tanks will begin today, according to Latham Water District Superintendent John Frazer.
The removal of the paint in anticipation of the cutting of the steel is expected to start today in addition to some other preliminary work, Frazer said in an email.
This comes after the process was stalled on Jan. 20 when the tank was filled with 3 to 4 feet of ice. Frazer said most of that ice has been removed.
`We removed a lot of the ice and only have 2 inches left,` Frazer said. `We’ve been running water through it just to melt it. And we’ve also had a couple of moderate temperature days.`
The contractor, Schultz Construction Inc., was back on the site Monday. Frazer said the demolition was halted when the contractor became concerned that when the steel was removed, some of the paint from the tank would chip off and fall into the water, contaminating it. While the steel would have been taken to a recycling yard and be melted down, the water would have to be disposed of as hazardous waste.
Now with the contractor on-site, the process will be able to resume.
The two Latham water tanks on Utica Avenue were identified by the Federal Aviation Administration Part 77 as obstructing navigable airspace and breaks through the approach surface for the Albany International Airport’s Runway 28, heading east and west, by 56 feet.
With funding coming from the FAA, the Albany Airport Authority and the New York State Department of Transportation, the two water tanks were set to be taken down. The total cost of the project is $11.1 million with $6.7 million coming from the FAA out of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The smaller tank, built in 1931, at 80 feet tall, held 100,000 gallons, and the taller one, at 90 feet tall, held 3 million gallons.
`This has been a very lengthy process,` said Airport Authority Director of Public Affairs Doug Myers. `There was a required relocation of the tower to the Sanderson site.`
The Town of Colonie had a new water storage tank built to hold 2.5 million gallons of water in 2008. The new tank is located at 343A Albany Shaker Road, which is adjacent to the Sanderson-Heath Haven Park, with a 3.5 million gallon per day pump station located directly next to the tank. There was a 36-inch main and 24-inch main installed in June of 2008 in Loudonville.
For the demolition process, crews will be scraping and vacuuming the checkerboard paint off the tank. They will then cut the seams of the tank with blowtorches and remove sections of it, piece by piece.
Frazer said the process could take about four weeks to complete.
Myers said while the water tower have been up for a while, planes have been avoiding them and only using the runway for a third of the airport’s flights.
`It’s a large tower that’s protruding,` he said. `It’s all in the hands of Colonie now.“
