L Street Station Redevelopment (née Old Edison Plant)| 776 Summer Street | South Boston

Equilibria · Feb 8, 2022

Suffolk has a site for construction updates: https://www.suffolk-lstreetstationboston.com/

AmericanFolkLegend · Feb 8, 2022

AmericanFolkLegend said:
In a couple public notifications and in discussions with the project team, they keep referring to the upcoming work as "deconstruction." Finally, I go, "Are you talking about demolishing the power plant." And the PM responded, "At Suffolk, we prefer the term 'deconstruction'."

I posted this 3 months ago. Sure enough, the home page of the web site Equilibria linked is titled: Deconstruction: L Street Station
I think they truly believe if they don't call it demo it won't be loud and messy.

Equilibria · Feb 8, 2022

AmericanFolkLegend said:
I posted this 3 months ago. Sure enough, the home page of the web site Equilibria linked is titled: Deconstruction: L Street Station
I think they truly believe if they don't call it demo it won't be loud and messy.

I feel like there's a difference. Demolishing is just knocking something down and picking up the pieces. This will actually be deconstruction, with scaffolding surrounding the buildings and them taken apart piece by piece.

AmericanFolkLegend · Feb 9, 2022

Equilibria said:
I feel like there's a difference. Demolishing is just knocking something down and picking up the pieces. This will actually be deconstruction, with scaffolding surrounding the buildings and them taken apart piece by piece.

Sure the smoke stacks and the tallest buildings right on L Street. But I have to imagine most of the buildings (particularly if they're set back from the road) are just going to get pulled down with a wrecker claw.

BeyondRevenue · Feb 9, 2022

I feel compelled

stellarfun · Feb 10, 2022

Interesting in the list of contractors / subcontractors, there are two firms, Sanborn, Head & Associates. and TRC Companies, that are categorized as the owner's environmental reviewers, and a third firm, GZA GeoEnvironmental Inc. is identified as the "Community Independent Environmental Reviewer".

One market for TRC is de-commissioning and "demolition" of power plants. No deconstruction for them.
https://www.trccompanies.com/servic...demolition-and-redevelopment-of-power-plants/

That there are three consulting firms acting as environmental reviewers suggests that this plant is quite contaminated.

Jahvon09 · Feb 10, 2022

I thought that building was rehabbed by now. What's taking them so long?

stellarfun · Feb 10, 2022

Jahvon09 said:
I thought that building was rehabbed by now. What's taking them so long?

The deconstruction is scheduled to be done July 2023. Much of the demolition and removal is of what is called regulated material, which means demolition is piecemeal, and the material is loaded into special trucks for transport to special disposal sites, which may or may not be in Massachusetts.

Clean-up of sites and buildings that are contaminated with hazardous and toxic substances can be VERY expensive. Clean-up of mercury contamination at a nuclear weapons facility at Oak Ridge was estimated to cost $3 billion five years ago. And that is not a huge facility; Just that they used most of the national stockpile of mercury to make hydrogen bombs.

Jahvon09 · Feb 10, 2022

stellarfun said:
The deconstruction is scheduled to be done July 2023. Much of the demolition and removal is of what is called regulated material, which means demolition is piecemeal, and the material is loaded into special trucks for transport to special disposal sites, which may or may not be in Massachusetts.

Clean-up of sites and buildings that are contaminated with hazardous and toxic substances can be VERY expensive. Clean-up of mercury contamination at a nuclear weapons facility at Oak Ridge was estimated to cost $3 billion five years ago. And that is not a huge facility; Just that they used most of the national stockpile of mercury to make hydrogen bombs.

Didn't know that they were still getting rid of hazmat from the building.