A plan to construct a new concourse through downtown Quincy, Massachusetts, has run into a time consuming and expensive delay on account of the discovery of asbestos-laden construction materials marked for demolition. The discovery of the dangerous asbestos materials will more than double the demolition costs, and push the remainder of the construction project off schedule.
Asbestos was used eagerly throughout the twentieth century in a variety of industries for its strengthening, fire retardant, and insulating properties. The naturally occurring mineral’s utility was additionally compounded by its incredible availability, ease of fabrication and surprising cost efficiency. Asbestos’s alluring properties come at a price, however, and one that wasn’t fully understood until the latter half of the twentieth century.
Asbestos fibers, when accidentally inhaled or ingested, cause respiratory complications, lung cancer, and mesothelioma – an aggressive, terminal cancer which attacks the lining of the body’s organs. Mesothelioma has become a serious problem around the world as asbestos has been introduced to more and more industries. More than ninety thousand people worldwide die annually from the disease, and hundreds of thousands more are affected by other serious asbestos related illnesses.
Asbestos remediation, or the process of properly disposing of the materials during demolition or construction projects, is tedious and expensive. Asbestos materials must be handled by workmen who wear protective clothing and masks, must be kept moist to prevent accidental inhalation, and must be transported to special disposal facilities. These difficulties sometimes lure contractors into cutting corners – a practice whose repercussions are felt by workmen or innocent bystanders in the decades to come.
The Quincy planning director, Dennis Harrington, said that the costs for the concourse’s demolition project were estimated at some $500,000 as early as mid August. The discovery of large amounts of asbestos materials, however, has pushed the price of the demolition up to around $1.1 million.
“It’s turned out to be about as bad as it can be,” said the planning director. “There are lots of hidden floors with asbestos material.”
The Mayor of Quincy, Thomas Koch, although grateful that the discovered material would be handled properly, was frustrated with the additional costs.
“It’s there. We have to deal with it,” he said. “The city’s not picking up the tab thankfully.”
