Demolition work planned at closed Indiana munitions plant

The Associated Press is reporting that work is expected to start in the fall on tearing down dozens of buildings from a closed military munitions plant in southern Indiana.

The River Ridge Development Authority has awarded a $1.3 million contract to Louisville, Kentucky-based Cardinal Demolition for demolition of about 30 buildings that were once part of the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant.

The agency is converting the 6,000-acre site in Charlestown into an industrial park and wants to have all of the former ammunition plant’s approximately 700 buildings demolished by the end of 2018.

According to the River Ridge Commerce Center website, the plant manufactured gunpowder during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. During the height, it employed some 27,000 workers. It was closed in 1992. Congress declared the property surplus in 1998 and authorized 6,000 acres of the property to be conveyed to the River Ridge Development Authority for economic development and other parts of the property to be used for expansion of the Charlestown State Park.