Heneghan Wrecking Co. Clears Chicago Neighborhoods

Wed August 02, 2006
Jim Boyle

Recognizing the poor state of public housing, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) is in the midst of renovating salvageable sites and tearing down condemnable properties throughout Chicago.

The undertaking is part of a sorely needed project to improve the living conditions of Chicago’s poorer families.

To ensure a thorough, neighborhood-conscious job would be performed, the CHA called upon Heneghan Wrecking Co. to manage the building demolitions.

One of the current projects Heneghan Wrecking is doing for CHA consists of two 15-story buildings located at 13th and Laflin, just southwest of the city. It has been ongoing since April and will be completed by August with a final result of a level site with grass.

“This is a federally funded project, which is calling for at least 25 percent of the buildings to be recycled. We’re exceeding that by more than 50 percent,” said project manager Patrick Heneghan. “We’re reaching that goal by recycling concrete and reusable stone on site with a crusher plant.”

Tim Scannell, a representative of Powerscreen of Chicago Ltd., helped Heneghan decide on using a Terex DL Pegson jaw crusher and a Powerscreen 800 screening plant. They also used a Cat 945C excavator from Patten Construction Products and Liebherr 954 and 924 excavators from American State Equipment Co., helping the crew to process 250 tons of material at the project site.

“A lot of the concrete has been screened on site,” said Heneghan. “That eliminated a lot of hauling. The screening plant has given us 3-inch stone that will be reused in new construction. About two percent of the material will be landfill garbage.”

The contract scheduled one month for remediation and three months for the demolition and recycling. Heneghan said that approximately 90 percent of the buildings marked for recycling are finished.

Heneghan’s efficiency and sensitivity to the surrounding neighborhoods have kept the crew in the residents’ good graces.

“We haven’t really had any complaints,” said Heneghan. “They know we’re here, but we try to stay out of the way. Most of the recycling is done on site, so there is not a lot of trucking clogging up the streets. We use water to keep dust down. The neighbors have been very cooperative.”

The people of Heneghan Wrecking Co. have plenty of experience when it comes to successfully managing a demolition job. A family business started by Patrick Heneghan’s father and uncle approximately 35 years ago, it has grown into a reliable, veteran firm.

“My dad and uncle were working as operators when they first started in the industry and decided to go into business for themselves,” said Heneghan. “They started with one machine remodeling buildings. Each year they saved a little bit more and continually added more machines and manpower while moving into demolition. Today we average four demolition jobs simultaneously.”

For more information, call 773/342-9009 or visit www.heneghanwrecking.com. CEG