Demolition of an abandoned mall in Burlington, Vermont, resumed in April after asbestos was discovered in the building, a report by the Burlington Free Press says. The work was paused in January after fibers were found in a glue used to secure a 60-foot wide rubber membrane in the parking garage.
The membrane was covered in 200,000 tons of concrete and did not show up in the as-built plans for the mall, the report says. Developer Don Sinex of Devonwood Investors, New York City, who oversees the demolition, says in the report the two-month delay costed $700,000.
Sinex is hoping the project will received LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, Washington. The $225 million project recycled 92 percent of construction and demolition (C&D) debris during April, the report says, including concrete, scrap metal, aluminum and iron. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a third-party certification system for green building by the USBGC.
Currently, the report says, crews are using acetylene torches to cut the top floor of the parking garage, so it can “pancake down” onto the floor below. Crews will use excavators to tear into it once it is at a lower level.
The Burlington Town Center will be replaced with a complex that will include office space, apartments and retail locations. Construction is scheduled to begin before the demolition is complete, the report says, by driving 275 H-shaped steel beams 10 feet into the bedrock, 140 feet below the surface. The steel beams will be clustered around the site and capped with concrete and will support the first steel members of the new project. The report says the 100-million-pound weight of the completed and occupied project requires anchoring into the bedrock for safety.
Sinex says in the report if the 100-million-pound project was pushing on the soil surrounding the building, the soil would begin to fold in around the building. He says in the report it will cost an extra $5 million to drive H piles into the bedrock, but the threat of settlement was too high to risk. He has also installed seismographs in nearby buildings, and spikes have not reached a level of concern.
Demolition of the building is scheduled to be complete by June 15.