NSH update

[Megster]

Environmental cleanup begins today at Norwich Hospital site

By Claire Bessette

Publication: The Day
Published 03/14/2011 12:00 AM
Updated 03/14/2011 12:07 AM

Preston — Town officials will mark a milestone Monday morning, when the first environmental abatement will start in the tunnels at the former Norwich Hospital property.

Crews from Manafort Brothers, Inc. will start removing asbestos and other hazardous materials from the tunnels near the Gothic-style Administration Building on the west side of Route 12.

The work will be done using the first of three $200,000 federal grants the town obtained for environmental cleanup on the former hospital property now called Preston Riverwalk, said Frank Ennis, site manager for the Preston Redevelopment Agency. The town contributed a $40,000 match to the grant.

The first phase, expected to take about three weeks, will clean about 300 feet of the old utility tunnels that snake through the property, and will use the entire $240,000, Ennis said.

The Preston Redevelopment Agency hired Manafort Bros. last September with a two-year remediation and demolition contract. The company agreed to demolish four buildings free of charge once the town completes the remediation. Manafort crews will give the town environmental assessments and abatement costs for each building and will salvage what they can from the buildings, Ennis said.

Once the tunnels at the Administration Building are cleaned, the second $200,000 federal grant and $40,000 town match will be used to clean the Ribicoff Building located behind the Kettle Building - the dominant structure at the southern edge of the campus. The third grant will be used to abate two smaller cottages on the opposite side of Route 12 and remove contaminated soil around the buildings, Ennis said.

Before demolishing the cottages, however, the PRA needs approval from the town Inland Wetlands Commission, because the cottages are located within the uplands review area of a pond on the property, Commission Chairman John Moulson said.

The wetlands commission did a site walk Saturday of the area near the cottages and also the area where two former oil storage tanks near the Thames River are slated for demolition. The commission might vote on the demolition request at its meeting Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall, Moulson said.

Manafort also agreed to do future assessments on several other buildings, and if the salvage value is worth it, they would offer to demolish them at no cost to the town as well, Ennis said.

I also have a little something something that was mailed to every resident in Preston since my grandparents live there, I'll have to scan & post.

[CarbonCavi]

I think today starts the day where I start dying inside

[Ademan]

That us a damned shame. I'm just happy to have seen the campus as many times as I have before they started.

[CarbonCavi]

HA! did you see theday news article yesterday? omg what a joke
says builds were caved in from the roof to the basement - not one building did that
tunnels had caved in - that was done by an excavator last year
they demolished buildings and left rubbel piles on property. - this is also FALSE

it makes it out to sound like a dump so people will say wow we have to clean this place up get rid of it asap when it is nothing of the truth. Early plans were to save admin building but this guy in the article yesterday said its a complete waste and everything needs to be razed

[Megster]

No didn't see it, this is the day article I saw but I don't see what you see, do you have a link?

[CarbonCavi]

i got the actual paper lol old school i know

[CarbonCavi]

here
- http://www.theday.com/article/20110315/NWS01/303159931/1019&town=

[Megster]

Oh that's horrible.  Sounds like they won't even try to save the Administration building, though it does show up in the design sketches for the new development.   

[CarbonCavi]

Went by Wednesday.  Had about a dozen cars in front of salmon, and an excavation and dump truck between administration and awl

[Kurt]

Went by Wednesday.  Had about a dozen cars in front of salmon, and an excavation and dump truck between administration and awl

I'm pissed. I was only FINALLY about to head down there and attempt it this weekend. But oh, wait. UGH. at least I got to see some of the exteriors. Are they going to tear down all of Preston AND Norwich's buildings? From what I have read most is in one town and a few in the other...

[Megster]

QUITE a few on the Norwich side!  Plus all the doctor's residences up on the hill.  So still worth a trip, besides there's lots of other things around here too.  Seaside of course, and you could hit Ladd on the way back (may not seem like they're close, but if you go to Norwich you can shoot right down Rt. 165 back to RI to Rt. 3, to 102, etc.  Lots of little places along the way...

[donnabhain]

There's still time most likely Sweet! When they started on Metro it took quite awhile and I used to go in there on their off days with no problem. The workers used to leave their tools all over the place too! I always thought that was kinda lazy of them as anyone could have walked away with 'em . . not to give anyone any ideas, the guys work hard and get hit when someone rips off their tools!

I think they arent supposed to knock stuff down until they've got the asbestos out of it? That should give folks like me one last chance to check it out.

[Ademan]

You've still got plenty of time for Norwich. Go for it. The abatement process, which must be done by law(Actually, I dont know about CT law), before tearing anything down is going to take some time. Go on Sundays and after 5pm on weekdays. Most construction crews wont be around at those times.

[Megster]

In today's Bulletin:

Wrecking ball begins swinging at former Norwich Hospital site
Crews also removing asbestos, other contaminants

By MATTHEW L. BROWN
The Bulletin
Posted Mar 19, 2011 @ 11:28 PM
Last update Mar 20, 2011 @ 06:24 AM
   
Preston, Conn. —

If the economy weren't in such a shambles, the town of Preston might consider the former Norwich Hospital property a gold mine.

When the state abandoned the property 15 years ago, it left almost everything behind.

Since then, almost anything copper, from pipes to gutters to roof flashing and decorative panels, has been stolen.

In better economic times, the enameled cast-iron sinks, fixtures, decorative architectural elements, slate shingles and even the bricks that are parts of the 390-acre property's 55 now-crumbling buildings, would all be of value and could be sold to offset the cost of redeveloping the sprawling campus.

Instead, the town, which bought the property from the state in 2009 for $1, is using three $200,000 federal grants to begin environmental remediation and demolition work at the site, which started last week.

Each of the grants is matched by $40,000 in town money.

With the first of the grants, Plainville-based Manafort Bros. Inc. will spend the next three weeks removing asbestos, lead paint and other environmental contaminants from the vast network of tunnels beneath the hospital property, beginning behind the grand administration building, built in 1904.

The building itself will be stabilized and weatherproofed.

"If it fits with anyone's development plans, fine. If it doesn't, it goes," said Frank Ennis, property manager for the Preston Redevelopment Agency, which was created by the town to implement the redevelopment of the property.

The tunnels carried utilities, including steam pipes, water and electricity, to each building on campus and were spacious enough to be used to transport patients between buildings as well.

Stolen copper

None of the copper pipe that once stretched throughout the tunnels remains. It's all been stolen, Ennis said.

If all the copper pipes were still in the tunnels, it would probably be worth enough to pay for the remediation project, he said.

Across Route 12 from the administration building, the next $240,000 will be spent to clean up two "cottages" on the banks of a pond that was once the campus reservoir.

There's asbestos, lead paint, PCBs, insecticides and all the other maladies familiar to industrial-era properties.
Preston's Inland Wetlands Commission approved the demolition of the cottages this month.

The third grant will pay for the abatement of the Abraham Ribicoff building at the far southern end of the property.

Once clear of contaminants, Manafort has agreed to demolish the building for free in exchange for scrap material from the structure, which housed the campus morgue and other scientific facilities.

The same arrangement is in place for two large oil tanks on the east bank of the Thames River.

"It's a big project," said Michelle Lester, Manafort's project manager at the site. She said crews would work quickly and move on to the cottages within a month and to the Ribicoff building by the end of May.

Once the nearly $600,000 in federal grant money is gone, the agency is on its own with more than 50 rapidly deteriorating, unabated buildings.

Ennis said the agency is busy applying for every grant it can.

"It's a shame," he said. "When the state walked away, think about the college campus this would have made for any one of the colleges around here."

"That building used to be beautiful," John Stuart, of Preston, said of the administration building. "The marble staircase. I don't know if that's still there. We used to go through the tunnels and to the movie theater. When you think of it now, it was kind of scary."

Read more: Wrecking ball begins swinging at former Norwich Hospital site - Norwich, CT - Norwich Bulletin http://www.norwichbulletin.com/archive/x713424584/Wrecking-ball-begins-swinging-at-former-Norwich-Hospital-site#ixzz1H98rOcyI

[CarbonCavi]

lol all the copper is gone. where could it have gone? no comment....

[CarbonCavi]

brought my streetbike up to get a few new goodies on her for spring and came back nsh on the ride home and pulled over for a bit and watched the demoing of the tunnels going on. i cannot tell you how much i am saddened by this. nsh was my second home for the past decade

[Megster]

Me too, I saw all the trucks parked around Main Admin when I was delivering in the area on Thursday, so sad

[CarbonCavi]

i dunno if anyone saw me there yesterday or not, i had the car parked near the chuch on the side of 12 around 230 - 300. was walking up and down the fence taking pictures of the abatement. A dark colored silverado with no labeling was driving on the lawn on the other side of the property just as fast as i was walking. I looked over at him and waved and laughed at him then kept on with my buisness. If i wanted to go in the property I would already have done so and he would have never seen anything. lol.
Either way its sad to see but once buildings start coming down is when itll really hit me

[CarbonCavi]

I went to go thursday night but after working in the weather since 130, then coming home and seeing it get worse, it dampened my spirits on going to NSH.

[CarbonCavi]

this has become a slut of a place on sundays.....

[Megster]

lol I know exactly what you mean

[sewerRat21]

darn i was realy hoping to make the trip out there to see this place, oh well i might try to make an attempt to see what remains

[CarbonCavi]

you have plenty of time left, and everythings there side from a few tunnels

[sewerRat21]

im not familiar with the arera, if some one wants to meet up and  go with me send me a pm and id b more than happy to go

[Ademan]

There's definitely still time. I know groups of 6 and 7 friends at a time who've been visiting it almost every weekend, and they've been meeting up with groups just as large inside the buildings.

From what I've heard, but don't quote me cause I dont think it's true anyways, they've installed a few IR camera's inside the tunnels leading to Admin and a few other buildings. If they're tearing her down, why install cameras now?

[CarbonCavi]

Yeah this place has become a whore of a site especially on sundays. The cameras up to admin might be true.Not 100% sure on that. but i know 100% for sure that there is alarms in admin. They are going to be saving that building and rebuilding it and its a minor deterrent for anyone taking anything thats left inside.

Id love to go soon but not with this many people running around the place.

[Ademan]

Id love to go soon but not with this many people running around the place.

That's how I feel. I've already seen most of the campus, so why get caught when there's 20 other people running around.

[sewerRat21]

the only advantage to a large group is that they cant arrest you all, so its survival of the best bullsh**er