 |
|
Mesothelioma: A Killer
Lurks in the Lungs |
|
 |
Mesothelioma & Asbestos News Page
Home Page
Asbestos delaying renovation project at Fox hospital
By Amy L. Ashbridge
Staff Writer
ONEONTA — Asbestos is standing in the way of a $12 million const
ruction and renovation project at A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital in Oneonta.
Before work begins at the hospital, the Medical Arts building at 400 Main St. needs to be demolished, hospital spokeswoman Maggie Barnes said in May.
Before that can be done, however, asbestos needs to be removed from the building.
"We knew there was asbestos in the building," Gary Smith, vice president of long-term care at Fox, said Thursday. "There’s a small quantity in the insulation that surrounds the pipes."
While asbestos is usually harmless if it is in good condition, damaging asbestos — like when a building is demolished — can cause the carcinogen to be released in the air, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Older buildings frequently used asbestos for insulation and fire protection, according to the EPA’s website.
Removing the asbestos will cost about $20,000, Smith said. Costs involved in removing the asbestos were built into the original budget for the entire renovation and construction project, Smith said, and the bid for the asbestos abatement went to USA Remediation Services in Virginia.
Removing the Medical Arts building is crucial to the project because a parking lot will be constructed in its space.
The building project also requires the physical expansion of the radiology department, which is getting its first magnetic resonance imaging machine.
Barnes said she wasn’t sure what the project’s economic impact would be in terms of the number of construction jobs created. The number of hospital jobs — both in the radiology department and the emergency department — should remain the same, Barnes said.
The number of construction jobs, Barnes said, would be determined by the construction manager, LeChase Construction Services in Rochester.
LeChase is coordinating the bid process for the project and would be soliciting bids from local companies, Smith said Thursday.
Bid packages went out Thursday and are due back Oct. 12.
In May, Smith said construction was slated to start Sept. 1 and would take about a year to complete in seven phases.
Now, the timeline is dependent on when the asbestos can be removed from the building and the building can be demolished, Smith said.
Even though a company is in place for asbestos removal, the Department of Labor has to approve the work, and the city will have to issue a separate demolish permit, Smith said.
The Otsego County Industrial Development Agency approved $9.9 million in bonding for Fox’s project at the agency’s Sept. 16 meeting, administrative director Lynn Bass said.
A community fund-raising campaign will supply money for the rest of the project, Bass said.
Back to Original Article on Mesothelioma
Continue with:
APS: Some Students Might Have Been Exposed To Asbestos POSTED: 9:06 am MDT September 24, 2004 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Parents of students at one Albuquerque charter school will receive notification Friday that their children might have been exposed to asbestos at school.
Lives in the dust September 25, 2004 The worst of the asbestos scourge is yet to come, affecting people like Hank and Bert De Vries. Photo: Simon O Dwyer In the end there was nowhere left to hide. The death toll was climbing, the inquiry forensic and the public anger near boiling point. Elisabeth Sexton and Tony Stephens report on James Hardie, its dirty work and the people left behind.
Rumours of change at Hardie helm By Scott Rochfort Sydney September 25, 2004 Speculation is rife that James Hardie chief operating officer Louis Gries could soon take charge at the former asbestos manufacturer.
Lead Paint, Asbestos Found in School Gym By Tom Kasprzack Published on 9/24/2004 Pawcatuck -- Construction workers renovating Stonington High School have encountered some lead paint and asbestos inside the gymnasium, Peter Manning, senior project manager for the Gilbane Construction Co. said last week.
Another £6.9 million is to be spent on Coventry Transport Museum to rid it of asbestos, add new exhibitions and install sprinklers to prevent fire wrecking its priceless collections. The full council agreed the extra expenditure after hearing the alternatives could prove even more costly. Building a new museum from scratch would cost £35 million.
MARK COLVIN: Mark Latham today aligned himself even more closely with a campaign to force James Hardie to pay better compensation for victims of mesothelioma. The Labor leader stopped the campaign bus outside the James Hardie factory in Sydney to meet one of the leading campaigners for compensation.
Halliburton said it will restructure and may even sell its Kellogg, Brown and Root subsidiary, the business at the root of recent controversy. KBR, an engineering and construction business, has come under scrutiny over contracts in Iraq and employee corruption in Nigeria.
|
