Davenport, IO – An Iowa-based company will remove asbestos from the Dock site prior to the demolition project at the riverfront property.
The estimated cost for the demolition project is $150,000. Holst Trucking & Excavating Incorporated, of LeClaire (IO), will tear down the building. The asbestos abatement will be handled by Environmental Management Services of Iowa, of Dubuque, Iowa.
The demolition was approved by the Alderman at a meeting held on July 22.
Earlier, the city council had terminated its agreement with Iowa developer Todd Raufeisen. The city had an $11.2 million deal with Raufeisen for the empty building located at 125 South Perry Street. The building has been closed since 2003 after a fire damaged it heavily. According to city officials, Todd Raufeisen failed to meet the project deadlines over and over again, including the first deadline of December 31, 2014 for the demolition.
In June, the Davenport city officials took the decision to tear down the current structure as part of the riverfront redevelopment. The city got three bids for the demolition project. The lowest bid of $70800 was submitted by Holst Trucking & Excavating. Rock Island-based developers Valley Construction and McAdam Incorporated had submitted bids at $111,111and $144,600 respectively. Aldermen unanimously voted to pay $70800 to Holst Trucking & Excavating Incorporated for demolishing the Dock building. They also approved hiring Environmental Management Services of Iowa Incorporated for the asbestos abatement project which is expected to cost nearly $80,000. The asbestos removal work could take up to six weeks. The demolition will start only after the completion of the asbestos removal works.
Asbestos is the term used to describe a group of fibrous silicate minerals found in the nature. Asbestos is a mineral with excellent tensile strength, high flexibility, long durability, and substantial resistance to chemicals, electricity and heat. All these wonderful features, along with its cheap availability, made asbestos an extremely popular commercial product. It was added to numerous products such as cement, insulating materials, automobile brakes, clutches, floor tiles, wall tiles, ceiling tiles, boilers etc. Though the industry became aware of the fact that asbestos exposure can cause fatal medical conditions as early as the 1930s, they concealed this info from their workers and send them to work around dangerous asbestos-containing products without even providing them with sufficient protective devices. But, the hazards of the mineral became fully known later. The U.S. started regulating asbestos in the 1980s.
