Valpo gets bids for dome demolition

VALPARAISO | The dome is doomed.

Bids were opened at Friday's board of public works and safety meeting for the demolition of the former Natural Ovens Bakery dome on Mariposa Drive in Eastport Centre Industrial Park. Economic Development Director Patrick Lyp said the goal is to award the contract in two weeks and have the building down and disposed of by the end of the year.

Before that can happen, the city's Redevelopment Commission is going to have to come up with a little extra cash. The commission budgeted $350,000 for the demolition based on preliminary estimates, but the lowest of the three bids from G.E. Marshall just for the demolition of the dome and the concrete sidewalks around it was $631,180.

Consultant John Blosky, of Amereco Inc., said the polyethylene-coated dome is 60 feet high, and its concrete walls range from 18 inches think at the base to eight inches at the top. The concrete foundation is eight feet deep and 12 feet wide and everything is reinforced.

The bids included four separate alternates for additional work: to remove the additional concrete from the parking lot and driveways; to crush all the concrete not part of the dome and haul it to the city-owned Sylvester property next to the Porter County Municipal Airport; to crush the concrete from the parking lot and driveways and haul it to the property, and to remove the polyethylene coat from the dome, crush the concrete and haul it to the property.

Marshall's total for all the alternates was $191,430. Blosky said the crushed concrete could be a valuable and relatively cheap source of stone that could be used as a base for roads on the Sylvester property, which the city is developing in partnership with Chester Inc. as an extension of the industrial park.

After the dome is gone, the city can talk about how to go about redeveloping the site, Lyp said. At this point the city has no one interested in the site, which went through several tax sales without any takers before it was turned over to the city by Porter County.

Lyp said the taxes due on the dome are more than the value of the building. Under the agreement the city has with the county, any money from the sale and/or development of the site will go toward the demolition costs. Anything left over will be split with the city getting 70 percent and the county 30 percent.

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Valpo gets bids for dome demolition