'They rolled uranium': Abandoned Simonds Steel mill in Lockport set for $249M remediation

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $249 million contract to remediate the former Simonds Steel mill in Lockport. The Manhattan Project contributor has sat abandoned since the 1990s.For decades, people have driven down Ohio Street only to see the shell of what was once an important Niagara County steel mill. Most recently, it was Guterl Steel Co.; before that, Simonds Saw and Steel Co.Demolishing the 70-acre property hasnt been safe because of its former work beyond the steel industry, in nuclear materials. During the Simonds Steel days, it was a specialized steel manufacturing plant. They rolled uranium and thorium for the Manhattan Project in the 1940s and 50s, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) senior project manager Gabriel Schmidbauer said. Theres not a lot of history about it, because it was a very top-secret program back in the day.The USACEs Buffalo District has maintained the safety of the site since 2001, when it was added to the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial