Elgin company makes art of demolition

Every building and bridge, just like people, can be so different. And internal structures can have dangers lurking inside.

Internal dangers, such as asbestos, can hamper the safe removal of a building. So customizing a plan for a teardown, using the right heavy-duty equipment, and being flexible so changes can be made quickly are all necessary, said Chuck Gerage, co-owner of Elgin-based Omega Demolition Corp.

“There's no formula here,” said Gerage, 44. “You just never know what will happen when you get into it, especially if something's been remodeled and it's not part of the plans. The danger is consistent. This is an experience-driven profession and you need to know how to handle it.”

Some recent projects for the local company included the teardown of the Ohio Street feeder bridge in Chicago in just two weekends, instead of the estimated three. It involved closing half of the Kennedy Expressway for 57 hours at a time to demolish the 637-foot-long bridge.

Among many other projects, Omega has removed a concrete area and seating at the Allstate Arena to install the ice rink for the Chicago Wolves; performed internal and structural demolition for various remodel jobs spanning 15 years inside the Rosemont Convention Center; and demolished a building at the site of Johns Manville in Waukegan, among others.

The company specializes in aboveground and underwater explosions and implosions to demolish a structure according to government safety and environmental guidelines. The company then extracts materials from the site for recycling and safely transports away the debris.

Gerage, along with his brother Jim Gerage, 41, both of Barrington Hills, have been growing Omega since they started it in 1997.

The Gerage roots run deep in the industry. Their father was in the excavation and trucking business, so the brothers grew up around such equipment and trucks.

By the time Chuck was 21 and Jim was 18 in 1991, they started working together.

“We did small jobs for homeowners that included grading, selling black dirt, hauling away materials,” Chuck Gerage said. “During the early 1990s we found that environmental cleanup and remediation work became a source of new business. We began to market this work and began performing environmental remediation in Illinois and Wisconsin.”

During an environmental cleanup project, they discovered it had contamination that ran underneath a building and the building needed to be demolished. That was their first demolition job. They began marketing demolition and started interior demolition on buildings that remained intact and total building demolition on tear downs.

When Omega officially formed in 1997, the two brothers hired one employee. Now they have roughly 300 employees.

Flexibility, quick thinking and knowledge of equipment are vital to ensure that the building or bridge is taken down safely.

“If a bridge had 2 inches added to it, then it has been remodeled — that means it's heavier,” he said. “We'll then have to use different equipment to take it down.”

TakeAways

Insights from Chuck Gerage, co-owner of Omega Demolition Corp.:

• Every project is different, just like people, and plans need to be customized for those projects.

• Flexibility and quick-thinking are vital, especially when something unexpected happens on a job site. You have to know how to quickly change your plans when necessary in order to get the job done safely and efficiently.

• Use new technology, either by using a computer or other new equipment for the job. They can help to quickly accomplish what you want. The computer can be a great source of information to help with your project.

• Besides being environmentally important, recycling materials from older buildings and bridges helps to make a company thrive.