1 Priority Environmental Services spearheads abatement effort at former Vought Aircraft plant

Fort Worth, Texas-based 1 Priority Environmental Services, which recently merged with Denver-based Earth Services & Abatement, announces it is tackling asbestos mitigation efforts at the former Vought Aircraft plant in Grand Prairie, Texas. Vought is under abatement and demolition to make way for what will be Home Depot’s largest lease and distribution facility, which is slated to occupy two million square feet of the 315-acre site. The $2 million abatement effort began in 2017, and Missouri-based Northpoint Development is the project owner.

Vought occupied the aircraft plant near Dallas from 1940-2012. According to 1 Priority CEO Gary Caldwell, “The site, now called Dallas Global Industrial Center, was first built for armament construction for World War II. The plant was home to the construction of historic military planes such as the B-1 bomber, F-22 Raptor, and parts for commercial aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and 777 over the course of its 72-year stay. At its prime, the plant employed over 29,000 people.

“Although this is our first collaboration with Northpoint Development, 1 Priority and its owners have performed asbestos abatement, mold remediation and hazardous dust decontamination work at this facility since the early 1990s when it was owned by LTV, Vought Aircraft and Triumph Aircraft. Our record of work here made this massive, $2 million abatement project a natural progression.”

According to Heath Watson, executive vice president of field operations for 1 Priority, current abatement work includes the removal of asbestos-containing materials from up to 157 buildings that were previously used for offices, manufacturing, storage and hangars. 

“This is a huge project, demanding a lot of coordination among various contractors,” Watson says. “The owner, Northpoint Development, gave us the sequence of the buildings to abate, and our crews are moving through one building at a time to allow for the demolition contractors and reclamation crews to get in as soon as they can to the abated building as we move on to the next. All work is being performed in a fast-track manner to meet the construction schedule. There are only so many ants you can have on the hill at one time, and depending on the building being abated, 1 Priority will have anywhere between 10 and 40 crew members working at one time.”

1 Priority has currently abated the asbestos from 83 of the 157 buildings on the campus and is slated to abate the balance before the end of 2020.