Author: Peter Wheeler

The blue silos behind the Michaela Farm barn building are being removed and recycled for the safety of employees and visitors. These silos were not part of the original construction of the barn, and they have reached the end of their functional life span because of their age and condition. Greenacres respects and appreciates the historic nature of the barn and is working to preserve this important piece of the farm for future generations.

“We carefully inspected these structures and determined the best course of action would be to remove them as they were showing signs of their age. They served their intended purpose for several decades, but as Greenacres transitions the property towards its focus on education, we want to ensure that the environment is as safe as possible for everyone. We are working with an Indiana contractor specializing in the safe and clean removal of these structures. We expect the project to be completed before the end of February 2023.”

Alex Saurber, Director of Buildings & Grounds

There are several ways old silos can be dismantled. Greenacres wanted to ensure that the historic barn building was not at risk throughout the process. The contractor who will remove the silos specializes in a method removing them from the bottom up. Although more time-consuming, there is no risk of unintended damage to surrounding structures. The recyclable materials will be sorted and sent to the appropriate facilities for reuse.

The deconstruction method we will use is very similar to a popular silo construction method in which a contractor builds a section and uses jacks to lift it to make room for the next section underneath. Each layer is added below the previous section. Deconstruction reverses this process by lifting the silo off the ground and removing the lowest section. One the ring is completely removed they lower the jacks and remove the next section and continue this process until the silo is completely dismantled. Very few contractors use this method to remove silos, instead preferring a quicker method of dropping them like a tree. Due to the potential danger to the surrounding historical buildings, we didn’t feel this option was viable. We spent a number of weeks finding a contractor who specialized in our preferred method and they will begin deconstruction on February 27th.