Old Bannock Hospital sees demolition day, round 2

After sitting half-demolished for nearly one year, the second round of demolition for the former Bannock Hospital started on Tuesday morning.

Pocatello-based Construction Services is heading the tear-down, and owner Shannon Schultz said the entire building should completely hit the ground between the next two and three weeks.

“All of the utilities have been disconnected, there was a duration of abating all of the asbestos out of the building, all of the oils, everything, has been taken out of the building and disposed of properly so that we can finally tear the building down,” Schultz said.

He added, all of the metal from the building will be recycled, while the concrete and bricks will be crushed into gravel.

“We’re trying to separate the materials to lessen the load on the landfill,” he said.

At this point, it’s not certain who will be building on that empty lot once the building is torn-down, but Schultz said he plans to leave the foundation as it is.

“The cost to back-fill this just to dig it back out again would be an expense that nobody would want to take on.”

The hospital was built in 1950, and sat vacant since 2011 after the new Portneuf Medical Center was built on Hospital Way.

In 2016, demolition to the facility came to a halt when it was discovered T-Mobile still had cell towers sitting on top of the building. Earlier this month, that equipment was finally moved to the top of an Idaho State University’s Garrison Hall.

Read more on this related story: http://www.localnews8.com/news/former-bannock-hospital-to-soon-see-rest-of-demolition/301124040