Crews began demolishing the Lewisville water tower on Wednesday morning.
The tower, which has been Lewisville’s landmark since 1960, is no longer part of the city’s water distribution system. This type of tower typically has a functional lifespan of 50 years, according to James Kunke, community relations and tourism director for the city of Lewisville. Last year, a working group of residents researched how much it would cost to repair, restore and re-paint the tower, and provided a detailed cost estimate of about $783,000 to the Lewisville City Council. An attempted community fundraiser raised less than $10,000 in pledges.
“Faced with such a large expense that would have to be repeated every 20-25 years, the City Council did not support the project,” Kunke said.
The demolition and disposal of the tower cost about $122,000.
The city will pay homage to the tower with some small murals nearby.
“Concurrent with TxDOT plans to rebuild the I-35E/Main Street interchange, the City already had committed to paying for decorative concrete formliners on the embankments facing the highway traffic lanes,” Kunke said. “There are similar displays at the rebuilt interchanges at Garden Ridge and FM 407. Two of the Main Street panels have been redesigned to reflect a Fighting Farmers theme.”
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