Demolition began Tuesday, January 23, on the Memorial Hospital smokestack as part of the site work for the new Patient Tower. The work is being performed by Walsh Construction.
A boom lift with a total height of 185 feet is being used to lift the demo crew to the top of the stack so they can remove bricks by hand.
Once the crew reaches the middle of the stack, a crane will be assembled to demolish the remainder of the smokestack and old boiler house. The crane will have a claw tool on the end of it that will “nibble” off sections of brick. The debris will be dropped into the stack shaft and then removed. The process to demolish the stack could take around a week to complete.
Once the stack is removed, work will begin on demolishing the old boiler house. Thousands of pounds of metal components from the old boilers will be recycled during this process.
The hospital is now moving into a heavy period of demolition and removing parts of buildings to create a clean canvas for the new Patient Tower.
Smokestack history
The smokestack was built when the 1958 building was constructed at the same time as the East Patient Tower. The smokestack is approximately 10 stories tall – it’s about as tall as what the new patient tower will be.
The stack had been in service for the hospital since the 1950s up until recently. The hospital’s old boilers were recently decommissioned following the addition of a new boiler house that was completed in December on Lafayette Street.