MANSFIELD — It turns out knocking out the Westinghouse “A” building was the quick part of the demolition process for the sprawling former factory site on the city’s east side.
The adjoining 13-acre “concrete jungle” is proving to be a big job all unto itself.
“We are finding some really interesting things,” Richland County Land Bank manager Amy Hamrick said. “What they’re finding under this concrete is just blowing everyone’s mind.”
R&D Excavation of Crestline is handling the $4 million project, which began in December with the start of the demolition of the former “A” building, a hulking five-story, decaying structure that sat largely vacant for three decades.
The building was completely down in early February. But the work on the adjoining pad, found to be 30 inches thick, will likely continue for months.
Hamrick said the contractor has found several deep concrete pits, some of which look to be 12-feet deep, which filled with water during recent rains. They are also finding tunnels.
None of these were known when the work began.
The discoveries beneath the Westinghouse-placed pad have local officials scratching their heads to determine what the pits and tunnels were used for — and by whom.
“We’re still trying to match up to something, to some of the maps, to figure it out,” Hamrick said.
The former Baxter Stove Company once operated at the site, beginning in 1883. Its works were located on Bloom Street, today’s East Fifth Street.
The factory was plagued with fires in 1890 and again in 1893. It was rebuilt after a fire in 1899. Another blaze in 1910 nearly destroyed the factory again. Unable to fully recover, the facility closed in 1916.
Westinghouse moved into the site in 1918.
“Did they build over basements? I don’t know,” Hamrick said. “They were all covered with concrete.
“Or were these some kind of press pits and when they tore the (Baxter) buildings down, they just decided to cover them with concrete?” she asked. “I couldn’t image them covering them with three feet of concrete at that time.”
She said attempts were being made to fly a drone over the site to see how and/or if the pits and tunnels were connected.
She said R&D also pulled three massive concrete chunks out of the ground, two of which were so large they could not be removed in one piece.
“I think it’ll be interesting when we get an overhead view to try to figure out how’s all related to each other,” she said. “What we’re going to find as they keep digging things up … we don’t know.”
The good news, according to Hamrick, is testing being done at the site has not revealed any contamination that could require clean up.
“They’re really maybe halfway done with ripping up the concrete. Maybe a little over halfway. So we still got the other half to go,” she said, estimating the work could take another six months to complete.
“This has definitely been a site that has given us a lot of different little surprises,” Hamrick said.
Given the discoveries, Hamrick said it’s likely R&D Demolition will request a change order to provide additional funds for the work.
“We’ll just look at the numbers as they come in and go from there. We can always reapply for more (Ohio Dept. of Development) funding once that does become open, especially if we have additional cleanup.
“I think we’re going to get a lot of help from both Ohio and U.S. EPA,” Hamrick said.
