Demolition Begins on OVMC’s Largest Tower
Portion of Center Wheeling Parking Garage Removed Along Market St.
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WHEELING - Two major demolition projects in Center Wheeling continue to progress, as crews razing the former Ohio Valley Medical Center buildings have begun work to tear down the biggest building on the property.
Meanwhile, across the street, a separate project to tear down the Center Wheeling Parking Garage is also making great strides, as a significant portion of the structure has been removed long the side of the property adjacent to Market Street.
Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron reported the progress of this work to members of Wheeling City Council this week. A portion of Chapline Street between the two structures is expected to remain closed through the end of this year as the two massive demolition projects continue.
"The former OVMC demolition project is moving along," Herron said on Tuesday. "I wanted to alert everyone that beginning today, they did begin demolition of the West Tower, which is the building that was built in 1980. That’s the largest of all of the buildings on campus. So demolition of that is next."
Crews from F.R. Beinke Wrecking Inc. of New Jersey began razing the OVMC buildings back in November of last year. Once the property is cleared, WVU Medicine plans to construct a multimillion-dollar regional cancer center on the property.
The demolition of the OVMC buildings is being spearheaded by WVU Medicine. The $6.8 million contract for the demolition is being paid through a combination of collaborators on the project, with WVU Medicine footing the majority of the bill, while the city of Wheeling and the Ohio County Commission are both contributing $2 million.
Progress has been made by crews working to dismantle the Center Wheeling Parking Garage, where over the past two weeks, work has focused on removing portions of the structure on the Market Street side. Much of the work was done at night in order to avoid disruptions to neighboring businesses during the day. (Photo by Eric Ayres)
Demolition of the Center Wheeling parking garage that once served patients and employees of OVMC when it was in operation is being spearheaded by the city of Wheeling. A $1,638,000 contract was awarded to Reclaim Company LLC of Fairmont, last fall for the parking structure demolition. The removal of the old parking garage is technically a "dismantling," as the structure is being taken apart and removed piece by piece.
Work to dismantle the Center Wheeling Parking Structure began in March and is expected to continue through March of next year.
Herron this week reported that over the past two weeks, work had taken place at night at the site. The city manager explained that this work was done on the Market Street side of the structure and was done in the evening for safety purposes and to minimize disruption to area businesses during the day, since the street needed to be closed with lane restrictions at times.
"The night work has been completed," Herron said. "The project is moving along very nicely, but also there has been significant coordination between the OVMC demolition contractor as well as the city of Wheeling’s demolition contractor, and that coordination is going to be even more important as they move through the West Tower, because they both are going to be using Chapline Street there as part of their staging areas. So we’re excited to see both of those projects continue to progress."