About 90 percent of the debris from demolition of the Jennie Sealy Hospital and old Shriners building at the UTMB will be recycled, said Vaughn Construction, the construction manager on the project.
Demolition of the buildings will create about 31,000 tons of debris. The Jennie Sealy building was demolished March 3. The Shriners building is scheduled to fall by May.
The cleared site will become the home of the new $438 million Jennie Sealy Hospital scheduled for construction later this year and completion in 2016.
Concrete rubble at the site will be crushed to make aggregate for new concrete or gravel for use in road construction and site pads, said Matt Byman, senior project manager for Vaughn Construction. The recycling is being done by Leimer Brothers Concrete Inc. in Galveston. Brick also will be recycled.
Recyclers at the demolition site will reclaim metals such as copper pipe and wire, tin and aluminum.
“Operators at the demolition site sort through the concrete and remove all metals before loading the old concrete into trucks for removal,” Byman said. Recycled metal from the old Jennie Sealy building has an estimated market value of $120,000, he said. Commercial Metals Corp. in Galveston is recycling the metals.
Wood, insulation and roofing material can’t be recycled and will be sent to the Galveston landfill.
Here is the estimated tonnage for recyclables and waste:
Jennie Sealy:
- Concrete – 14,920 tons
- Metals – 1,920 tons
- Waste – 1,100 tons
Old Shriners:
- Concrete/brick – 10,400 tons
- Metals – 1,240 tons
- Waste – 1,450 tons