Brick by brick, floor by floor

Contractor making haste to complete demolition on time

June 24, 2017 at 2:40 a.m. | Updated June 24, 2017 at 8:18 a.m.

by Jennifer Middleton

Workers chisel out pieces of the facade of the Kress Building on Thursday in downtown Texarkana, Texas. The original building burned in 1933 and was rebuilt to house the distinct five-and-dime store and was later condemned in 1979. In October 2012, the City Council deemed the building unsafe and began the process to have it condemned. A Joplin, Mo., firm is doing the work.
Workers chisel out pieces of the facade of the Kress Building on Thursday in downtown Texarkana, Texas. The original building burned in 1933 and was rebuilt to house the distinct five-and-dime store and was later condemned in 1979. In October 2012, the City Council deemed the building unsafe and began the process to have it condemned. A Joplin, Mo., firm is doing the work.

Demolition will continue next week on the Kress Building, with a walkthrough by the project's historical architect and structural engineer scheduled.

Project Consultant Larry Snodgrass said the project, which began May 15 and should take 140 days, was a tad behind schedule but that the contractor is catching up quickly.

"It's not so much the rain, but when you have as large of cranes as we have, with a projected wind event, even if it's minor, we have to put them at a safe stance," he said.

Early on, there were a few such rain events, he said, but the project is almost back to schedule. Snodgrass anticipates getting ahead of schedule with the traditional seasonal weather.

There is a large crane at both the front and back of the building, located at 116 W. Broad St., along with man lifts also on the front and back. Crews are unable to use traditional demolition practices because Kress is tied to buildings on each side, Snodgrass said.

At this point, workers have removed most of the roof by hand. They also have removed some architectural features made of terra cotta and affixed using a strong cement mortar, making them difficult to remove.

"We were able to save more of the features than what I personally thought we would be able to," Snodgrass said. "I personally did not hold out a lot of hope that we would even be able to save anything."

When the architect and engineer do the walkthrough next week, they will simply check to make sure some of the base assumptions they made on how the building was constructed are valid, Snodgrass said.

"We will make sure demolition activities to this point haven't created any unusual conditions or cause any shifting or harm to the adjacent structures."

The original building burned in 1933 and was rebuilt to house the distinct five-and-dime store, and was later condemned in 1979. In April 2009, the Texas Historical Commission reviewed the property and found it eligible for historic register listing, but no further action was taken.

In May of that year, the city of Texarkana, Texas, accepted ownership of the building for demolition purposes, according to city records. In October 2012, an engineering firm deemed the building unstable, with the city voting in March to approve a $629,000 contract with Gator Industrial LLC of Joplin, Mo., for the demolition.

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