Reading, PA’s St. Joseph’s Hospital Taken Down by Empire Wrecking Co.
The project required four buildings to remain standing, one being the original historic chapel located centrally among all of the demolition. Additionally, three exterior walls and a tower of the original stone structure had to remain independently intact to be incorporated into to the new proposed structure.
Since 1955, Empire Wrecking Co. has established a reputation as the best demolition specialist of Berks County and surrounding areas. Hard work and customer satisfaction are characteristics of the Reading, PA-based Empire; characteristics the company was built on and characteristics that are still maintained today. This was once again put to the test when given the task of demolishing St. Joseph’s Hospital in Reading, PA. On the project, Empire worked under the direction of Turner Construction, the construction management company on this particular site. The demolition project included the remediation of hazardous materials, selective demolition, total demolition and façade stabilization of various portions of the hospital. As part of this bid package was the task of videoing all underground piping that might be reused, fencing of the entire site and all weather protection where walls and roof sections were removed. The original stone building of the hospital dated back to 1882, and was expanded at least six times over their many years to a massive 400,000 square foot building along with a group of row homes and a 65,000 square foot parking garage. The terrain is severely sloped, with the first floor of the structure at street level in the front and the fourth floor at street level in the back. In actuality this was not the first part of the major demolition — Empire started the initial phase of the work in February 2007 with the demolition of property adjoining the hospital: A five-story, 72,000 square foot doctor’s office building with a concrete parking garage totaling 34,000 square feet. Upon completion of both demolition projects, the property changed ownership to the Reading School District for the construction of the future Reading Citadel Intermediate School. Initially, the bid date given was for an immediate start, but the award bid date was delayed for three months. Due to additional delays with permits and utilities, the work did not start for an additional two months with the owner’s request that Empire’s work was to be completed and demobilized based on the original start date given. The project required four buildings to remain standing, one being the original historic chapel located centrally among all of the demolition. Additionally, three exterior walls and a tower of the original stone structure had to remain independently intact to be incorporated into to the new proposed structure. Needless to say, this posed challenges that only a well organized team could conquer. One of the walls to remain was attached to the chapel and needed steel shoring with foundations in place for the wall to stand alone prior to separating and the complete demolition of the remainder of the building. The tower and two other walls also required steel shoring. To erect the steel shoring, a JD80 Excavator needed to be crane lifted over the four story building and placed into the courtyard to excavate for the footers. Next, the concrete for the foundations had to be pumped into the interior of the courtyard. Then the steel shoring was partially assembled in the rear parking lot and lifted over the building and placed into the courtyard using a 300 ton hydraulic rock crane. The four buildings to remain were completely gutted of all interior finishes and mechanical systems to make way for the future Reading Citadel School. At the rear of the property, the prestressed 65,000 square foot concrete parking garage was demolished and the resulting concrete from the garage, footers and walls were crushed and stockpiled on site to be used as future backfill material. All other demolition debris was hauled away using dumpsters and trailers to our sister company Berks Transfer to be recycled. With all eyes on Empire as the prime contractor, the project was accomplished with a team of more than 50 laborers, five operating engineers, four foremen and a superintendent. At one point in the job there were more than 70 workers on site between the subcontractors and Empire’s work force. Empire utilized the services of various subcontractors to handle different aspects of the project such as electrical disconnects, capping and relocation to keep temporary power in the buildings to remain: • A sprinkler contractor was hired to separate systems and maintain fire protection operation as long as possible, as per city codes. It was also necessary to rework standpipe systems so that the buildings to remain would have fire protection until such time as the new sprinklers were installed. • Asbestos removal was a major portion of this project with thousands of feet of pipe insulation in the walls and underground tunnels as well as numerous areas of sprayed on fireproofing and transite panels. Thanks to the expertise of the asbestos contractor and their staff on site they were able to keep ahead of the demolition process and assist in adhering to the schedule. • Empire hired both a structural steel and a foundation contractor to help in the underpinning and stabilization of existing sandstone walls of the original hospital structure to be salvaged and incorporated back into the new Reading Citadel School. • Elk Environmental, a sister company of Empire Wrecking, was contracted to explore, remediate and secure any underground cisterns discovered during excavation. In addition to all the subcontract work on this project, Empire had to complete more than 200,000 square feet of interior demolition, which included the general hospital area, operating room and two large mechanical rooms. This had to be done without the use of motorized equipment due to the allowable floor loads of the buildings. Prior to demolition, the first step was the remediation of all asbestos containing materials. This process along with the other subcontractors had to be coordinated to assure the schedule of 26-weeks. Aggressive planning allowed Empire Wrecking to complete the project two weeks ahead of schedule. This was possible because the Empire Wrecking team accelerated the pace by mobilizing additional equipment, with four excavators simultaneously excavating, hammering concrete, munching walls, and pulverizing footers. At the height of the project there were five sub contractors involved with the project and five different locations being worked on at the same time. The demolition presented serious challenges. This was not a simple task as all of the buildings interconnected with other buildings — some of which were to stay and some which were to be taken down and still others that were to have just the exterior walls remain. This project utilized an experienced work force at these areas of separation. The only building that stood alone was a precast concrete parking garage. This part of the project was completed with the use of two 450 JD Ultra High excavators; a 300 Ultra High excavator, and numerous other equipment with grapples, hammers and processor attachments. Empire completed the job including all change orders and the coordinating of additional asbestos, underground tank removals and over excavation of contaminated material and disposal on schedule. As always, Empire Wrecking Co. proved they were up to the Challenge. Since leaving the site the general package for renovating the remaining buildings and construction of the new school has been awarded to a General Contractor with Empire going back to the site once again for the final fit out as a subcontractor. This will consist of minor demolition, exterior wall openings, roof removals, new floor openings and the like.
