Bids for the Alpha Portland Cement Co. Plant demolition are expected to be advertised before the Christmas holidays.

The approximately $1 million remediation project could begin by February.

Part of the price tag will be covered by an almost $800,000 Clean Ohio Revitalization Grant the county received to rehabilitate the Hog Run Road site.

Originally the acreage was the site for the Ironton Portland Cement Co. that provided cement for the city starting in the 1800s. In 1920 Alpha Portland purchased the plant, adding two stack houses to the operation in 1924. Portland describes the kind of cement produced at the plant.

Alpha Portland stopped operation in 1970.

“It will be an asbestos, demolition and environmental remediation project,” Matt Wagner, vice president of Keramida, said. Keramida is the Indianapolis-based environmental consultant handling the restoration of the current brown field.

“A lot of the asbestos is in some of the structure and also in the soil,” Wagner said. “This is a specialty that certain contractors do. They physically remove it, wear appropriate attire and dispose of it at a dump site that handles that kind of waste.”

Potential contractors will have 30 days to get bids in and a pre-bid walk-through at the site is mandatory, Wagner said.

Lawrence County was one of 17 in the state to receive a Clean Ohio grant in June that brought in $794,565 for the revitalization project. The remainder of the cleanup costs is the responsibility of the developer, Ice Creek Land Co., owner of the 340 acres.

The majority of that is to come through providing infrastructure improvements such as bringing sewer service and other utilities to the site, Wagner said.

Right now plans for the site are for Marietta Industrial Enterprise, a material handling company to construct a 30,000 square-foot distribution warehouse on the site.

The remediation project will be advertised in newspapers and on the Ohio Department of Development’s website.

“We definitely plan to start (work) in the winter,” Wagner said.