The contract to tear down the old city hall building in downtown Windsor has come in under budget by about $500,000.
Project Manager Wadah Al-Yassiri says the demolition contract has been awarded to 'Budget Environmental', out of Hamilton, which was also responsible for tearing down the old Grace Hospital site.
The original budget, which included consulting work, was $2.7-million.
The contract for the demo work, which was awarded just before the holidays, came in at just under $2-million.
There's another $200,000 for consulting work which was awarded to DST Consulting.
Al-Yassiri says it gives the project a buffer of about $400,000-$500,000 which is always good with a project of this size.
He says abatement work and clean-up of asbestos and other hazardous materials will begin this month and will last for a couple of months, at which point, work will shift to demolition of the old building which dates back to the 1950s.
It will also be a green demolition as they try to recycle 80 to 85% of material.
"Recycling the safe materials that we manage to take out from the old building, being the concrete, steel, wood, recycle it and crush it so we can use it as a backfill," says Al-Yassiri.
He says the city will also make sure none of the demo work affects nearby buildings including All Saints Church, St. Alphonsus Anglican Church and the new Windsor City Hall.
"We will be setting up seismic monitors to make sure the vibration doesn't exceed the approved limits by the ministry because we don't want to negatively impact any of the integrity of these very important structures."
The old city hall closed for business on May 17, 2018.
The area should be leveled by August 2019.