Asbestos content could double cost of New Walk Centre demolition.
Roads surrounding Leicester’s New Walk Centre could be partially shut for up to five months when the two towers are demolished, an expert has said.
City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby announced this week that the council’s headquarters would be brought down and rebuilt within two years.
William Eyre, owner of Lost World Demolition, said the task could cost around £2 million.
He said: “It’s a concrete building which was constructed in the 1960s, so the asbestos content means it will be expensive to demolish. Extra care will have to be taken to control the dust.
“They’ll start the demolition by fencing off and securing the site. Then the building will have to be soft stripped, which means the interior will be stripped of things such as door frames and other fixtures and fittings. By this stage, the lifts will have been removed so lots of this material will be put down the lift shaft to be removed from the site. After that, it’s a case of removing the building floor by floor, from the top down. Because it’s in a built-up area it’s likely the roads and pavements close to the site will have to be closed – and the whole job is likely to take around 20 weeks.”
Mr Eyre, from Leicester, who pulled down the Richard Roberts factory, the Byfords factory, part of Charles Street police station and part of the Towers Hospital, in Gypsy Lane, said the cost of the demolition would be at least £1 million, but could be double that depending on the amount of asbestos in the two buildings.
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