Photo courtesy of Cody Steckman of Bill Miller
Located just off the Potomac River, the historic paper mill in Luke, Md., shut down in 2019 while under ownership of Verso Corp.
One of the largest demolition jobs on the East Coast is taking place in one of the smaller towns in the Northeast — Luke, Md., a town founded in the 18th Century with fewer than 100 residents.
The Piedmont Pulp and Paper Co., an expansive paper mill founded in 1888 by the Luke family, encompassed more than 1.3 million sq. ft. and produced approximately 450,000 tons of paper annually. More recently and commonly known as the Luke Paper Mill, the mill peaked in the 1960s, successfully operated for 131 years and employed hundreds of local residents. Located just off of the Potomac River, the historic paper mill shut down in 2019 while under ownership of Verso Corp. Since then, a massive demolition project began in late summer 2023 with an anticipated completion of summer 2024.
Teaming to Tackle Massive Demolition Job
The two companies involved with this vast job include Port River West LLC of Frostburg, Md., and JR Vinagro Corp., a contractor located in Johnston, R.I.
Bill Miller, born and raised in Maryland and president of Bill Miller Equipment Sales Inc., expressed interest in the property along with several other investors. To acquire most of the paper mill vertical assets, Miller partnered with Kurt Firestone and Marie Miller to establish Port River West LLC.
Photo courtesy of Cody Steckman of Bill Miller Equipment
In addition to bringing immense management skills, scrap buying and scrap selling experience to the partnership, Firestone also provides most onsite employees.
After obtaining the metal assets, Miller subcontracted the demolition to a loyal customer of more than 20 years, JR Vinagro Corp., a successful northeastern demolition contractor to tackle the job. Miller said he "values the long relationship he has had with JR Vinagro Corp. and appreciates their capabilities and professionalism."
JR Vinagro Corp. has completed hundreds of jobs across the northeast and currently is celebrating its 25th year of operation. Because of its longstanding partnership and good relations with Miller, along with a company slogan of "Challenge Accepted," Vinagro's team welcomed the vast challenge in Maryland.
"We have such good history with Bill Miller that this particular job just seemed right," said Joe Pasquerella, vice president of demolition at JR Vinagro Corp. "We knew one of the main players in charge; we had someone we could trust and so we accepted it."
Iron Plays Huge Role
Aside from the enormous size of the paper mill, the demolition poses several challenges with the dense industrial structure, tremendous volume of tanks and silos and the massive boiler buildings. As the biggest job accepted to date, JR Vinagro Corp. has used only the best resources, employees and equipment to complete the task. From two high-reach excavators, including a Komatsu 1250 and Volvo EC750E HR to numerous Cat 390s, 374s and 349s, the timeline and budget remain on schedule due to the planning, hard work and collaboration of JR Vinagro Corp. and Port River West LLC.
Assisting with the equipment needs on site, Miller's staff works closely with Brian Palombo, senior superintendent of JR Vinagro Corp., to ensure a smooth completion.
Tad Will, equipment manager of Bill Miller Equipment Sales Inc., with more than 40 years of experience in the industry, has more than a dozen additional pieces of equipment on the job site. This includes one Cat front-end wheel loader, six track excavators with specialty attachments, several rigid frame hauling trucks, including two Cat 768s and a Cat 769 and Cat material handlers that include a MH34 and MH26. Altogether, the equipment enables Palombo and his crew to demo more than 6,000 sq. ft. a day of heavy industrial structure.
As the project approaches midway completion, several upcoming major phases demand the full effort of the teams. Numerous tanks, silos and turbines still require demolition.
Photo courtesy of Cody Steckman of Bill Miller
"There's also a very large boiler building with turbines that will need demolished at the tail end of the project," said Pasquerella.
Although the high-reach excavators provided JR Vinagro Corp. the ability to limit the use of cranes and elevate lifts beforehand, demolishing the boiler building, with boilers as tall as 260 ft., will most likely require the use of cranes. In fact, the boilers are so massive that JR Vinagro Corp. is considering using a local explosive company as an alternative to cranes.
In addition to determining the best way to demolish the boiler buildings, both JR Vinagro Corp. and Port River West LLC have utilized dump trailers to transport steel and other materials to various scrap buyers for recycling.
CSX railway runs past through the mill — which spans more than a million sq. ft. — and has been used to transport salvageable materials quickly and affordably. While the mill operated, the rail remained critical to transport lumber to the mill and ultimately played a large role to the success of the mill.
After such a successful project, Port River West LLC intends to pursue more medium- and large-scale demolition jobs to fully utilize the extensive skills demonstrated by JR Vinagro Corp.
While the closing of the paper mill left hundreds unemployed, the efforts put forth by Miller, Port River West LLC and JR Vinagro Corp. now offer hope to the town as they revitalize the space. Port River West LLC believes that removing the obsolete paper mill assets better suits the site for more productive future endeavors and will greater benefit the town of Luke and its surrounding area. The demolition of this mill offers endless potential to the land and town, while currently employing contractors and rental houses, operators, mechanics, local diners and more.
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