New York State Park officials laid out the for the demolition several of buildings at the former Kings Park Psychiatric Hospital Thursday morning at a meeting held at the administration building at Nissequogue River State Park.
Bidding for the project will begin late this month with an expected contract award date of February or March of 2012. Actual work on the project is expected to begin in May of 2012 and should be completed by November of 2013.
According to Parks Director Ron Foley, up to $15 million has been released for the project. Nine buildings are listed in what officials called base bid buildings. Seven of those buildings have been condemned and are slated for controlled demolition according to Richard Walka, Senior Vice President of Dvirka and Bartilucci, consulting firm for the project.
“The buildings that have been condemned by state parks will be demolished in place. They are in such bad structural shape. Since they have asbestos material and other hazardous materials they will be taken off site to be disposed of at a secure landfill,” said Walka.
Approximately nine additional buildings have been listed as alternative bid buildings, which will be removed according to what funds are still available after the initial base bid buildings are taken down.
Those buildings will be abated, a process where contractors go in and remove the hazardous material, cart it off site to be disposed of and then break down the rest of the building on site.
“You are not going to see the old fashioned wrecking ball. The stuff will be cherry picked out and separated…there is not a steel ball coming into them,” said Walka.
The consulting firm, along with a parks inspector will be onsite throughout the demolition process.
According to Foley, public use of the property may change throughout the project. Use of the soccer field, bike paths and marina may also be affected. Environmental regualtions dictate that work in the marina should occur between Oct. and March.
"We don't know how that will affect marina operations until a contractor is in place," said Foley. “The bike path may have to close when we are working in that area.”
Kings Park Boulevard, which runs through the property, may be closed during demolition.
“The boulevard will close as the project dictates its necessary,” said Foley. “We won’t do it unless it is necessary, but we anticipate it will be necessary. It is not our intention to close it permanently,” he said.
Advocate for Nissequogue River State Park, Linda Henninger said she would like to see the plan continue to progress.
"It’s exciting that the long awaited phase one demolition is finally beginning. The meeting was very productive and the paramount issue – the safety of the community - was thoroughly addressed," she said. "The next critical step in this ongoing process must be the creation of a master plan for the entire park. Deciding how the clean up should proceed from here on will only make sense if there is an overall blueprint of the park’s future uses."
A list of buildings to be demolished along with the entire presentation is attached. Click on photos and then PDFs to view.
