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Just one small blast
set to topple Lualualei
radio towerTwo other 300-foot towers
By Gregg K. Kakesako
were to follow later today
Star-BulletinExperts planned to use only one 3.5-pound explosive charge to topple a rusting 300-foot radio tower this afternoon in Lualualei.
The demolition company, which has been doing this kind of work for more than 50 years, was confident there would be no problems.
The Navy planned to demolish three obsolete 300-foot antenna towers which were erected in 1935 for the 14th Naval District.
The job was to be carried out by Controlled Demolition Inc. of Phoenix, Md., which has toppled the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas and the Omni Arena in Atlanta.
Locally, the company has brought down the First Hawaiian Bank building in downtown Honolulu, the Damien Overpass on the H-1 freeway and Wilson Bridge in Wahiawa.
Douglas Loizeaux, the company's vice president, said a single charge would be placed on one of the three legs that support the radio transmitting structure.
The idea was to topple that leg, forcing the remaining two to follow.
"Just picture a stool with three legs," Loizeaux said. "Yank one leg and the rest will fall in that direction."
As a test, work on the first tripod tower was to take place at noon, with the simultaneous destruction of the others later today. The towers were about 800 feet apart.
Seven shorter 80-foot towers were demolished earlier this week using torches, said Loizeaux.
"Over the past two years, CDI has removed towers for the Navy in Annapolis and Trelew in Argentina," Loizeaux said, "ranging from 300 feet to 1,200 feet."
Agnes Tauyan, Navy spokeswoman, said the towers would be demolished because they are no longer used and haven't been in operation for more than 30 years.
Also scheduled to be demolished today was a nearby building which may have been used as a transmission facility by the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Command Area Master Station, she said.
Left untouched will be two 1,500-foot antennas, still in use by the Navy.
Tauyan said that the Nakoa Cos. Inc. was awarded the $411,534 overall contract in May for the demolition of the antennas and the building.
Once the towers are on the ground, Loizeaux said, Nakoa will cut up the steel and truck the pieces to a scrap yard for recycling.
The antennas stand on 1,718 acres used by the Naval Radio Transmitter. The land was part of a land swap engineered by U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka two years ago. In the exchange, the Navy got continued use of 1,356 acres of Waianae Valley that are part of the 9,200 acres housing Lualualei Naval Magazine and the Naval Radio Transmitter Facility.
About 1,700 acres at Lualualei were taken from the Hawaiian Home Lands in 1930 and 1933 and handed over to the Navy for ammunition storage under a federal executive order. Akaka's law required the government to determine the value of the land seized and amount of money lost by the Hawaiian Home Lands, and to transfer excess federal property of equal value to the department.
