Big Dig vs. PSC Metals

Recycling Today gives us a much better view of the 'scrap yard' that is PSC Metals (formerly Steiner-Liff) in the backyard of LP Field. Back in August when the grand unveiling of the Big Dig was made I suggested that we didn't really appreciate this facility. Maybe this article will help.

The scrap yard succeeds because it serves as a key recycling post for the 100-mile radius centered on Nashville. Much of the yard's raw materials are brought in by individuals: pickup trucks laden with farm equipment, cars loaded with appliances, peddlers carrying cans.

From this, the scrap yard turns out about 25,000 tons of steel and about 1,000 tons of other metals a month. Three-quarters of the steel leaves the yard by barge. Everything else is shipped out by truck or train.

(snip)

A similar disruption occurred five years ago when PSC relocated its barge loading facility, its truck scales and railroad scales to make way for the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge, the span that now links Gateway Boulevard with Shelby Avenue in east Nashville. That project hints at how complex moving the entire facility would be.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation invoked the power of eminent domain, but it still had to pay $5.3 million for four acres of land, a small corner of PSC's operations. Extrapolating from that, city officials estimate it would take about $100 million to acquire the more than 90 acres of land under PSC and its neighbors. The estimate does not include the cost of cleaning up the land.

Oddly, this article is credited to The Tennessean. But I don't recall seeing it printed locally and I can't find it in their archives.


Hat tip: Timothy via the East Nashville e-list.