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Fair Valley Stream's incinerator is coming down
See a video of the demolition here.
After years of standing dormant, Valley Stream’s incinerator has finally come down. The 162-foot-tall smokestack has been reduced to a pile of bricks.
Demolition started two weeks ago, when the back half of the incinerator building was removed, along with the tunnel leading to the smokestack. Last week a giant crane was set up next to the smokestack to demolish it from the top down. A piece of heavy equipment called a hydraulic muncher was attached to the end of the crane, which then broke apart the structure, sending sections of bricks crashing to the ground.
The project was expected to take two days, but instead took nearly a week. Tom McAleer, the village’s superintendent of buildings, said the smokestack was sturdier than expected, with two layers of bricks on the outside wrapping steel and an inner brick flute. “It was built very, very well,” he said.
The incinerator, which began operating in 1962, has not been used since 1979, when it was shut down for environmental reasons. The building continued to house the Sanitation Department office until the 1990s, when it was relocated to the Arlington Avenue Public Works facility.
The building has continued to deteriorate since then. Pieces of façade were missing, windows were broken, paint was peeling and equipment left inside rusted. It also became home to birds and rats. The property is surrounded by homes on three sides, and village officials said it had become an eyesore.
The final section to be demolished will be the main section of the building, which is 55 feet high. McAleer explained that the debris from the smokestack would be used to create a ramp so excavators can begin ripping the building down from the top. That part of the project will take about two weeks. Factoring in the cleanup of the site, McAleer said, all of the work should be completed by the end of this month.
It is being done by the Gramercy Group of Wantagh, which was awarded a $743,000 contract by the village in February. Gramercy knocked down the old Giants Stadium, and demolished two smokestacks at a National Grid plant in Glenwood Landing on the North Shore using the same method as in Valley Stream.
Gramercy will recycle much of the material from the incinerator. Any metal will be salvaged, while concrete and bricks will be ground up and used at future construction sites. It is commonly used as a base layer for roads, driveways and patios, Gramercy officials said.
McAleer said that Gramercy’s price was lower than that of other bidders because it factored in the money it will make from recycling the materials.
The site’s future
Valley Stream officials plan to replace the incinerator with a modern transfer station. Until then, the compactor will remain in operation. After garbage is picked up from homes, it is dumped into the compactor, and then hauled away by Jamaica Ash, a trash hauling company based in Westbury.
The transfer station would be 30 to 40 feet high. All sanitation operations would be moved into the building, including recycling, which is currently sorted outside. Fare said this would reduce noise and also make for a cleaner environment.
At its May 19 meeting, the village board awarded a $352,000 contract to Dvirka and Bartilucci Consulting Engineers of Woodbury to design a new transfer station. “We’re planning for the replacement building now,” Fare said. “The whole site is going to be reconfigured. There’s really nothing holding us back now.”
The biggest obstacle, he said, was taking the old facility down, which had been discussed for decades. He said that when a modern transfer station opens, it is expected that the village’s garbage-removal fees will drop. Officials are currently negotiating with Jamaica Ash. The existing deal runs through August, and the village has three five-year renewal options on its contract.
Village Treasurer Michael Fox said that officials want a contract that would reflect the lower costs associated with a modern transfer station. Currently, it pays $92.42 per ton.
With a new station, the village would have two options. The preferred one would be to have a bailer, which would condense and package garbage into cubes, which would then be loaded onto a truck and taken to a landfill. Fox estimated that such a system would cost the village about $75 per ton.
With an over-the-top system, a payloader would drop trash directly into a trailer, which would head to a landfill. The removal cost would likely be $80 to $85 per ton. “It’s going to be a savings no matter what,” Fare said.
Village garbage now goes from Valley Stream to Jamaica Ash’s headquarters, and then is transported to landfills. That extra step drives up the price, Fox said, because of the additional transportation costs.
The village currently processes about 17,000 tons of garbage per year. Fare said that with a modern transfer station, Valley Stream would likely be able to take in trash from its neighboring villages to generate additional revenue.
