Downtown business owners are calling it the end of an era saying demolition signs represent decades of frustration coming to an end.
“We’re all very excited in the downtown core to have it finally coming down,” said downtown business owner Judi Dormaar. “It’s been 30 years and I’ve had my business here for ten years. So for ten year I’ve looked at this.”
Crews gathered on site Tuesday, finally ready to put their Atrium demolition plan in motionM a process that has taken hours of planning to put into place.
“At least a couple weeks going back and forth, at least,” said Director of Community Services Barry Beck. “There’s a safety plan you have to put together just for the staff too.”
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The bid was awarded to a Vancouver based company earlier this year who has said the Atrium will come down piece by piece.
While Lethbridge residents are happy to say goodbye to the 30 year-old eyesore, one can’t help but wonder how crews plan to safely disassemble the concrete structure.
“They have a backhoe with a claw and the claw will just sit there and break a piece off and nibble away at the building piece by piece,” said Beck. “As far as pieces breaking off uncontrolled what they do have is deflectors on the adjacent buildings and the deflectors will if something doesn’t happen to fall onto an adjacent building it will be directed back onto the site.”
And as for the dust kicked up during the process business owners say they can stand to turn a blind eye for the next 30 days.
“It’s happy dust, it’s great dust,” said Dormaar. “It’s a good dust because it’s finally coming down.”
However, that too was included in the detailed demolition plan.
“They will have access to a hydrant so they’ll be spraying everything down as they go,” added Beck.
Though costing the city roughly 390 thousand dollars business owners say getting rid of the eyesore will be priceless.
The first piece of concrete came down Tuesday but the city says it will be a while before downtown business owners see a difference, as crews make their way from the back of the building to the front,
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