Elevator demolished: Crystal Valley structures stood for five decades

By DEB BENTLY

News Editor

When it was built by Harvest States GTA in 1973, the Crystal Valley feed and grain facility

between Janesville and Waseca was state of the art. The grain elevator was about 250 feet tall

with concrete 7.5 inches thick. It was poured using slip forms, which meant the work had to

continue around the clock. 

“About two dozen people have stopped and told us they remember when it was being

constructed, or even that they were hired to help with the work,” comments Trent Wadd, regional

operations manager for Crystal Valley, whose office is located on the same site as the elevator,

tucked in a relatively small space between Old and New Highways 14.

Beginning in August, the feed mill, warehouse, and offices, along with the elevator and the two

silos located beside it began being demolished using a wide range of large equipment which,

large as it is, is dwarfed by the size of the task.

According to Wadd, the concrete demolition will require a total of 8 weeks. He speculates that

the process of dropping the structures and then separating out and hauling away the rebar and

concrete costs about as much as building them in the first place.

Although he declines to reveal the cost, he observes that some of the bids received for the work

were approaching a million dollars.

The contract was granted to Mathiowetz Construction of Sleepy Eye whose general manager for

the project is Brad Ommodt. Ommodt says his company completes roughly 30 demolition

projects a year and that, while the Janesville elevator is among the larger ones, it is not the

largest.

According to Ommodt, a major challenge of the job is separating the immense amount of rebar

from the concrete it once supported. Passersby can easily see the piles of materials and the

excavation equipment sorting and loading them into side dump trucks.

According to Wadd, the structures have been decommissioned since 2021 for a combination of

reasons. For one, the feed mill (at nearly 50 years old) was fast becoming obsolete based on

current standards and practices within the feed industry. Besides having limited capacity, it

would have taken a considerable investment to bring the facility up to OSHA and FSMA

standards for compliance and safety. The two freestanding silos and the six bins within the

elevator had a combined total capacity of about 660,000 bushels. A single modern bin owned by

Crystal Valley near Hope holds 1.1 million bushels and is structured in a way which allows it to

both receive and release grain without the feed mill to draw corn bushels to the facility. Also, use of the facility decreased because the nearby ethanol plant would attract the majority of farmer corn from the area, and the remaining soybean bushel handle is not enough to sustain grain operations economically.

The elevator and silos are being removed now to make room for future dry fertilizer storage and

agronomy operations. “We’re kind of landlocked here,” observes Wadd, sweeping his arm

toward the highways to the north and south of the site. “We need to make more efficient use of

the space we have.”

With the elevator and silos removed, Crystal Valley plans to expand the fertilizer storage and

delivery facilities. Within a few years, Wadd expects his site to be capable of hauling in and

distributing one and a half to two times the amount of fertilizer currently handled.

But for now, all eyes are on the bustle and dust of the demolition project.

“It’s somewhat sad to see a landmark go,” observes Wadd, who admits he expects to miss it as

much as everyone else. He says it is some consolation to know that both the rebar and the

concrete are being “recycled”: the metal at an area salvage yard and the crushed concrete as fill

for various construction projects.

For those who wish to keep an eye on the work as it progresses, the Crystal Valley website

(Crystalvalley.coop) shows ongoing images of the demolition process.