The Berkley tank, an old Lewisburg water storage tank that was a landmark on 8th Avenue South, came down this week.

Monday morning, a crew started cutting the tank into sections and hauling them away, the booms of the slabs of steel falling to the ground echoing through the neighborhood.

The 74 foot tall, 50 foot diameter tank was built in 1948 to hold one million gallons of water for residential use.

The insufficient elevation of the tank compared to the other two storage tanks in the city and outdated technology led to the removal of the tank from service in 2011.

After looking at costs to repaint the unused tank, which was becoming streaked with rust, the decision was made to remove the tank entirely, said Lewisburg Water and Wastewater Director Trigg Cathey.

A follow-up engineering assessment showed that costs to renovate the tank for use would be unjustifiable and recommended the tank’s removal.

“We want to be good stewards for our rate payers,” said Cathey, “and it made sense just to take the tank down entirely.”

The department will sell the 128 tons of steel recovered from the tank, the walls of which tapered from three quarters of an inch at the base to a quarter inch in thickness at the top, for scrap, offsetting some of the cost of the demolition.

Photo submitted

Starting from the top of the 74 foot structure, a crew slices the old Berkley water tank into pieces on Monday morning.