Wright City checks for asbestos; Crew inspecting new city hall
By Adam Rollins, Record Staff Writer
Posted 3/6/17
Before contractors are asked to submit a second round of bids on renovating the building that will become the new Wright City Hall, they need to know what they’re going to find behind the walls. …
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Wright City checks for asbestos; Crew inspecting new city hall
Posted
By Adam Rollins, Record Staff Writer
Before contractors are asked to submit a second round of bids on renovating the building that will become the new Wright City Hall, they need to know what they’re going to find behind the walls.Wright City has hired Environment Operations Inc. (EOI) to survey for asbestos at the former Assembly of God Church at 636 Westwoods Road. Asbestos is a once-popular building and insulation material that was later found to cause cancer.Project Manager Jim Schuchmann said the survey is a precautionary step, part of the city’s due diligence.“I don’t anticipate finding any asbestos,” Schuchmann said. “The building was flattened by a tornado in 1983 and rebuilt. The ‘70s was when they started banning asbestos from building material. I would be very surprised if we did find any.”The survey will include cutting holes in the walls, pulling back carpet and taking samples from floor and ceiling tiles, in search of any material that might contain asbestos.If the inspection does reveal asbestos material, and if there is a high enough amount of it that will be impacted by the renovation, all of it will have to be carefully removed. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources mandates that asbestos-containing material must be addressed if more than 160 square feet, 260 linear feet or 35 cubic feet of it will be affected by demolition or renovation.Schuchmann said the possibility of having to do asbestos abatement could have contributed to high renovation project bids that the city rejected last month.The contractor would be responsible for removing any hazardous material they find, so assuring them they won’t have to deal with asbestos could take that factor out of the next round of bids, Schuchmann said.EOI estimated in its survey bid that about 45 material samples would be taken from within the building. The samples will be analyzed by a third-party laboratory using a technique called polarized light microscopy. Basically, analysts direct light through a sample and look for patterns of light distortion that are characteristic of asbestos.EOI will also survey for any other hazardous material that needs to be removed from the property.Schuchmann said the survey hopefully will be done within two weeks, including two or three days for samples to be checked in the lab. The city will then receive a report of the findings.“If we do find something, we will deal with it in the proper method,” Schuchmann said.EOI, which is based in St. Louis, was one of two companies that bid on the pre-renovation survey. It bid $1,074. The other company was Terracon, also out of St. Louis, which bid $2,200.
