Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – The Demolition of the former Pillsbury Mills plant is nearing half completion.

With over 175,000 square feet of building flattened, and 20 of the 160 storage silos leveled, demolition is now around a quarter of the way through.

Chris Richmond from Moving Pilsbury Forward, spoke on the WTAX Morning Newswatch about their progress so far, and how much is left to go.

Richmond states “The big news from last week, was on Tuesday afternoon when our demolition crews actually dropped the water tower on to the roof initially, and by Wednesday, they attached cables to it and rolled it off the roof. It did put up a fight, the tower actually snapped two cables, and these old buildings are really battling the demolition crews.”

Nobody was injured thankfully when those cables snapped during the water towers decent from the roof.

Richmond also stated “these are very stout buildings, but we hired the right demo crew. The demo crews have torn down around 175,000 square feet of building, and there is only about 350,000 square feet to go. They are about a quarter of the way through and still on track to be done by April”

Richmond also explained the reason for the 120 storage silos.

According to Richmond, “They would have about 18,000 Bushels, and the Silos were used to store wheat before it went into the flour mill. They used the silos to blend different kinds of wheat that they purchased. They would blend the wheat so that they would have the proper protein content, and nutrition content for the milling process.”

The former Pillsbury Mills plant should be demolished entirely by April of 2026.