By Adam Swift
The Firehouse Building Committee held a neighborhood meeting last week focusing on the upcoming demolition of the old middle school and auditorium.
Currently, there is rodent control ongoing at the site, as well abatement activities that will prepare the buildings for the full demolition.
At last week’s meeting, representatives from SMI Demolition laid out the schedule for the major demolition of the middle school and auditorium. The heavy equipment needed for the demolition is expected to arrive on site on about Dec. 28, with the overall heavy demolition taking about four weeks before the buildings are taken down to their foundations, according to Charles Smith of SMI.
Once the aboveground structures are gone, crews will begin foundation demolition and initial site grading, followed by the site cleanup and releasing the site for the next phase of the project.
Town Manager Tony Marino said the shovels should be in the ground to begin construction of the new fire station some time in the late summer of next year.
“What we are going to do is to commence the demo the 26th, or that following Monday, which I think is the 28th, that is when we are going to start taking down the actual middle school,” said Smith. “I like to get through the holidays … and then we will start taking down the main building, which is the middle school. Once that is being done, we are going to be in the auditorium finishing up some of the minor asbestos removal that has to be done.”
Once the middle school building is down, then demo will proceed to the auditorium, Smith said.
Smith said the company will be making extra efforts with equipment to suppress the dust caused by the demolition.
“Instead of blowing the water onto the process, we are pressing it down, which stops the dust from flying,” said Smith. “If you do happen to see something like that, you pick up the phone and call Tony (Marino) or reach out to one of my guys, we will take care of it.
The main machine the demolition team will be bringing in to take down the buildings is a 750, a high-reach demolition excavator.
“It’s able to reach up over the building, and the way we are doing this structure, because of the neighbors, and because of the complexity of this demo, it has a shear – like a pair of scissors – and it takes the beam, crosses them up, just kind of munch them and lower them to the ground,” said Smith. “With typical construction, they come in, they are hammering, they are pounding on the building; we’re not going to do that. This process mitigates noise, not that you aren’t going to have any.”
The demolition activity will get underway at 7 in the morning and go through the afternoon.
The trucks removing the demolition debris will use Pleasant Street and Brookfield Road in and out.
SMI representatives noted that the loudest part of the demolition efforts will likely be dropping the debris into the trucks.
Dan Pallotta of project owner’s manager P3 said once the construction gets underway, the project will probably take about 16-20 months.