Demolition is underway at the Upper Harbor Terminal site in north Minneapolis, culminating this week with the spectacular wrecking of the first of three dome-shaped silos.
Watch an Upper Harbor Terminal dome get wrecked in north Minneapolis
The site became obsolete after Congress ordered the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock closed to prevent the spread of invasive carp.
September 2, 2022 at 9:51PM
Contractors from the construction company Veit started tapping on the concrete monolith with a high-reach excavator about 10:15 a.m. Friday. Stretching some 20 feet into the air, it methodically punched a perforated line across the crown of the dome until the whole cap collapsed with an earth-shattering boom.
"Just like cracking an egg, see?" said John Benjamin with the Public Works Department, a huge grin on his face as clouds of dust rolled over the construction site.
Demolition of 19 out of 37 structures, large and small, within the Upper Harbor Terminal is scheduled to take place between August and December.
The 48-acre former barge terminal became obsolete after Congress ordered the closure of the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock to prevent the spread of invasive carp. It is now in the first phase of a $350 million redevelopment that will include a First Avenue amphitheater, affordable housing, a community health center and a riverside park, among other amenities.
"I just marvel at the amount of activity out here all of a sudden," said David Wright of Newmark, the property management company the city hired for the site. "For years, this community has worked over here at this, and it's an eyesore and it doesn't interest them, and there's nothing going on. ... When they do the improvements on the [Dowling Avenue] bridge and they do the art and they do the bike lane, that's going to catch people's attention."
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