Today I assigned our aging staff photographer to document the demolition of the 1st National Bank building. He only took two photographs, complaining that there was no water spray to control the dust. For a building supposedly encumbered with asbestos, one would think that the pedestrians of Allentown deserved better treatment, but of course the upscale people have yet to arrive. Regular readers have been hearing about Lehigh Structural Steel on this blog. If you click on and enlarge this closeup, you can clearly see Lehigh
Structural Steel Allentown is stenciled on this main beam. Imagine a time when an Allentown centered bank used steel beams made in Allentown for its headquarters in center square. We will be lucky if the beams used in the new building are made in the U.S.A.
UPDATE: A Morning Call video shows water being sprayed during the demolition. The spray person may have been on lunch break yesterday when I visited the site.
reprinted from October of 2012
Allentown today is the result of what happens when those who 'know better' say it is cheaper to import rather than make things domestically. Now, is a much poorer city than it was when that steel beam was made at Front and Tilghman streets.
ReplyDeleteAlong with the ramifications of other decisions made by those who lead us over the past 60 years which gave the city problems not even imagined in 1957...
I suspect that Lehigh structural steel did the erecting of the steel and that on a closer look the beams were marked Bethlehem Steel who manufactured the steel. I built a bridge on my property with used beams marked Bethlehem steel. It seems these beams are much less prone to rusting compared to the other beams in the bridge. I don't know if this is due to coatings or the alloy of the steel.
ReplyDeleteThe country was warned about these developments by Ross Perot in his 1992 presidential campaign. While disregarded by most as alarmist talk, it has all come true.
Ray@8:03: Lehigh Structural did not make or erect steel, but rather customized it to specifications. Among other services, they cut beams to length, and welded on the plates needed for connections.
ReplyDelete