Brick by brick, massive GE plant is 'deconstructed' Gone by year's end, officials say

A rainbow hangs in the mist of a snowmaking machine, converted for use as dust control, as deconstruction continues on the General Electric factory on Boston Avenue in Bridgeport on Wednesday, February 22, 2012. less A rainbow hangs in the mist of a snowmaking machine, converted for use as dust control, as deconstruction continues on the General Electric factory on Boston Avenue in Bridgeport on Wednesday, February 22, ... more Photo: Brian A. Pounds Photo: Brian A. Pounds Image 1 of / 11 Caption Close Brick by brick, massive GE plant is 'deconstructed' 1 / 11 Back to Gallery

BRIDGEPORT -- Brick by brick, beam by beam, the huge General Electric plant on the city's East End is being taken apart in one of the more massive "deconstructing" projects seen in Connecticut.

Three of the 13 interconnected, five-story buildings are already gone, and by the end of the year, GE officials say, there won't be a single building standing on the site.

And it might come as a surprise that just about all of the tons of broken concrete and bricks will remain on the site, according to GE's Marian E. Whiteman, a lawyer who handles GE's real estate matters.

"We'll need that material as fill to level off the site for future development," she said. "In fact, we'll probably have to bring in even more fill to complete the project. There's an underground tunnel that has to be filled in, too."

She said the structural steel and the glass are being recycled.

"The windows are the difficult part because they're held in by putty, which has asbestos, which of course has to be separated out and disposed of properly," she said.

Also to be removed are the wood floors, constructed of 2-by-8-inch pine timbers, set edge-on. Unfortunately, they're too badly damaged by the time they're removed to be of much use, other than as cover material at landfills, GE officials said.

Take-down specialists

The contractor for the project is Brandenburg Industrial Service Company of Chicago, which has taken down scores of aging factory buildings nationwide, many of which were much larger, such as the Bethlehem Steel Plant in Bethlehem, Pa., and four scattered Ford Motor Co. factories and the General Motors Tech Center in Warren, Mich. Brandenburg also razed two iconic stadiums: Comiskey Park and the first Soldier Field, both in Chicago.

There haven't been any major worker injuries so far. One laborer cut his hand and another sprained his ankle, but both were able to return to the job site before long, officials said.

"Every day, supervisors meet with the workers before work begins to go over safety precautions," Whiteman said. "And if they encounter something new, they'll have a second meeting at noon."

About 70 workers are employed on the project, 30 of whom are from the local area, officials said.

The plant had its own powerhouse, which was the first building to go. After that, the plant infirmary was taken down. Then, asbestos, plumbing and wiring were removed throughout the massive plant. This work, which began in 2010, was completed by early 2011. Finally, work began on the first, northernmost factory building along Bond Street, also known as Building 34. For reasons lost to time, the 13 interconnected buildings are numbered 22 through 34. Building 22 is the one closest to Boston Avenue. The buildings had about 30 acres of floor space altogether, and for a time, workers used roller skates and bicycles to get from one building to another.

"Building 34 took longer to take down because we were figuring out the best, safest and most efficient way to tackle these structures," Whiteman said. "Now, progress is picked up quite a bit."

There are no wrecking balls used. Instead, Brandenburg employs "brick picks," which are pneumatic hammers mounted in outsized cranes, for most of the demolition work. Giant claw-like devices are used to pull out steel beams and wood flooring.

Dust control

Skiers who drive by the site will see a familiar sight -- snow guns.

"The contractor is using them to blow water under high pressure to keep dust down," said Whiteman, who escorted journalists from the Connecticut Post on a tour of the site. "We also have several dust monitors positioned around the site to make sure that the impact on the neighborhood is kept to a minimum."

Signs posted on the fence facing Bond Street give area residents a phone number and an email address in the event they want to complain about the operation.

"We've had about 60 calls, and the vast majority of them were from people looking for work," Whiteman said. "We'll answer every email and every call."

Still, the roar of the snow guns, spraying a mist of water, can be heard blocks away, and they operate from 7 a.m. to sunset.

"It's really annoying," said Eddy Mauricio, who lives on Dover Street, a block to the east. "I mean, they have to realize that some people have night jobs and have to sleep during the day. How can I get any sleep with all of this going on? Why all of this ruckus?"

Rifles for Russia

The plant was built by the Remington Arms Co. in 1915 to fill an order for a million Model 1891 Mosin-Nagant rifles and other war materiel needed by the Czarist Russian Army. But hostilities were over just three short years later, and Remington found itself with a rifle plant and no major wars going on. To make matters worse, the communists were the victors in Russia, which repudiated the contract, saddling Remington with debt. The U.S. government stepped in to keep the company afloat.

"Unfortunately for Remington, World War II was another two decades in the future," Whiteman said.

GE takes over

The plant was sold to GE in the spring of 1920 for $7 million. At first, it was used to make armored cable, outlet boxes and the like. Electric fan production began in 1926, and between the early 1930s and the 1980s, countless coffee percolators, electric mixers, toasters and other small appliances poured out of the plant.

By 1990, GE had scaled back operations there considerably, and by 2007, the plant was more-or-less empty.

At its height, as many as 20,000 workers were employed there. The plant had an on-site bowling alley and a pool hall as recreation outlets for the workers.

"It's really sad to see that building go down," said Daniel, who lives nearby and declined to give his last name. "My grandfather worked there, and I gotta get a picture of it before it's gone for good."

jburgeson@ctpost.com; 203-330-6403; http://twitter.com/johnburgeson