Late in 2022 Frattalone Companies was awarded the Bethesda Hospital Demolition Project by CoBeck Construction for the owner, Fairview Health. Meetings started to take place around Christmas and soon after that asbestos abatement began. Two asbestos companies worked their way through the building for the better part of 3 months.
Once abatement was completed, the project was on hold again waiting on city planning, watershed approvals, permits, and utility disconnects. Demolition finally began on May 23rd. Once we got started, we demolished a section of the building to give us access to the original smokestack. The smokestack was hand demolished with a lift until it could be reached with the high reach excavator. After the stack was demolished, work started on the original structure.
The building was 8 stories tall on the east side with basements stepping down 3 more stories to the west. The original hospital was built in 1931 and had major additions in 1959, ‘63, ‘65, ‘80, and ‘82. Since these additions were tied into the other parts of the building, there was buried steel sheeting, buried form boards, and very solid construction left behind for us to remove.
Two high reach excavators aided in getting the building to the ground and then the sorting and loading began. Over 1,600 semi loads of debris were loaded and hauled to the landfill. While digging out the foundations we uncovered buried building debris that made up the backfill for the original building. This buried debris was also hauled away. Demolition is scheduled to be completed, right on time, around Labor Day.
For the 2nd phase of the project, we will be working for JE Dunn Construction. The ownership team is a joint venture of Acadia and Fairview. We will be installing the utilities and performing the earthwork for a New Behavioral Health Hospital licensed for 144 inpatient beds.
The new structure will sit on a 35,000-sf footprint and will have 2 stories on the east side and 4 stories on the west. The east wall will get backfilled with almost 8,000 CY of Styrofoam to reduce lateral ground pressure on a thirty-foot-deep foundation wall. Beyond the new sanitary and water services, the site will also include 3 underground retention systems.
The substantial completion for the site work, will be next summer.
