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Stadium Watch Blog
Tim Nelson

Recycling and reusing the Metrodome wreckage

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Dome-demo
The new Vikings stadium under construction in downtown Minneapolis today. (Earthcam photo)

Here's the roadmap for the end of the Metrodome: Remove, reuse, recycle.

The former home of the Minnesota Vikings and the Minnesota Twins is getting smashed up and hauled away, but it will get new life, the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority said today.

Chairwoman Michele Kelm-Helgen says more than 80 percent of the material will be reused or recycled after the Metrodome is completely demolished by the end of next month. "Some of it is going to fill in Arden Hills. Some of it is going to the Department of Transportation for roads. A lot of it is going to recyclers." She said more than 10,000 seats were resold and the rest separated for plastic and cast iron recycling.

"It was really important from our perspective, the state, the governor, the Legislature, really wanted to make sure that all of this didn't end up in a landfill. When you look at the size of the structure and the amount of material that was in there, it was really important that it be reused and recycle," Kelm-Helgen said.

The last of the stands disappeared last weekend, and about half of the excavation for the new stadium has finished.

Here are the details from a construction update this morning:

  • Excavation is nearing 50 percent completion (400,000+ cubic yards to date of an estimated 850,000 cubic yards of

  • material has been removed)

  • Almost 15 percent of the new stadium’s drilled piers have been installed (40 of 300)

  • Nearly 3 percent of the concrete that will be used in the new stadium has been poured to date (2,500+ cubic yards

  • to date of an estimated 100,000 cubic yards total)

  • Underground mechanical and electrical utility work continues

  • Foundational concrete elements are being formed

  • A third tower crane on the southeast corner of the site will be installed mid-April

  • Metrodome seats that were not sold were recycled: 120 tons (240,000 lbs) of cast iron and 75 tons (150,000 lbs) of High Density Poly Ethylene were recycled and sold to Minnesota manufacturing companies

  • 80,000 tons of concrete will be recycled for use in other building projects

  • Metals are being recycled include:

• 2,500 tons of structural steel; 2,000 tons of steel remain in the existing structure and will be recycled • 25 tons of precious metals • 300 tons of roof cables

Kelm-Helgen says construction, despite several months' delay at the start, is still on schedule, ready for an opening in July, 2016.