Asbestos hikes prices to demolish downtown icon

YOUNGSTOWN

Additional asbestos found inside boilers at the former Wean United complex caused a 25-percent increase in a contract the city has with a company to remove the hazardous material and clean contaminated soil at the downtown location.

The board of control approved the $72,450 change-order increase Thursday to the original $288,159 proposal from Environmental Management Specialists, the Cleveland company doing the work. That brought the project’s total cost to $360,639.

Asbestos-filled fireproofing materials found inside boilers at the facility’s former boiler house caused the increase, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public works department.

“It’s a little more pricey because of the increased labor involved in the removal,” he said. “It became a more time-consuming job.”

That work is ongoing, Shasho said.

Also, the city still has to seek proposals from companies to remove the concrete slabs of the 300,000-square-feet of buildings that used to house Wean United. The estimated cost of that work hasn’t been determined, but it will be more than the asbestos remediation and soil cleaning, Shasho said.

Read more about the demolition of the iconic downtown structure in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.