Undiscovered asbestos to balloon costs.
The cost of the Quincy Fair Mall demolition project could more than double after even more asbestos was found in the building.
It was thought last week the material was contained to only one section of a hidden floor that had asbestos tiling. But the city was informed this week that it’s more widespread, pushing the demolition several months behind schedule into the fall.
“It’s turned out to be about as bad as it can be,” said Dennis Harrington, Quincy’s planning director. “Not from a public health standpoint, but from a cost standpoint. It turned out there are lots of hidden floors with asbestos material.”
The situation is expected to balloon the project cost from $500,000 to about $1.1 million, Harrington said. That said, the added expense won’t come out at city taxpayers’ expense, and instead will be paid with surplus federal stimulus funds.
The state department of environmental protection has determined asbestos is all around the building, making it more difficult, delicate and costly to get rid of the materials. Nonetheless, officials stress that the asbestos is not a public health threat because it hasn’t been disturbed and become airborne.
“They don’t know how much flooring is false, because this building is partially demolished and they can no longer send people to walk around in there (due to asbestos),” Harrington said. “They’ve decided to assume it all has to come out.”
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