The disused Cantabria Residence building is a mountain of metal, cement… and asbestos. The 4,000 tons of this carcinogenic material it contains are distributed on the roof, the facade walls and the slabs and sidewalks between the floors of its main building, a 45 meter high tower located in front of the Marqués de University Hospital. Valdecilla in Santander. Its removal and treatment will cost 10.17 million euros, the majority of the 17.5 million that the Government estimates it will cost to dismantle a complex of four buildings and whose site will be occupied by the future Technological Park of Health.
As if asbestos were not enough, the mass of the Residence contains radioactive materials, especially with regard to the units that were Radiology, according to the summary of the dismantling plan that the Government of Cantabria sent to the Regional Parliament consulted by elDiario. es.
Demolition of the complex was due to begin after last summer, but it was delayed, not so much because of the extraordinary complexity of the process – it is expected to take 24 months and will have to be carried out by hand and with heavy machinery – but because the Cantabrian builders have The contract awarded to the public company Tragsa to do it has been appealed, in addition to the fact that there is still no municipal authorization for the demolition, requested in October by the Service of Cantabrian Health.
Almost the entire political opposition in the Cantabrian Parliament protested to the government chaired by María José Sáenz de Buruaga (PP) against the little information provided by the Ministry of Health led by César Pascual (PP). It was justified by the volume of the documentation, inviting anyone wishing to consult it to visit its offices, sending only a 13-page report as a summary.
The contract has been paralyzed by the Administrative Court of Contractual Resources (TARC), since the Association of Builders and Promoters of Cantabria (ACP) appealed, alleging that it goes against the principles of transparency and free competition in public procurement. However, the Regional Executive considers that Tragsa, specialized in works with a high environmental component, is the ideal company to do it.
40,000 square meters
But what do the walls of the complex, which is located right in front of the Valdecilla Hospital, hide? The demolition work report indicates that there is an area of 40,000 square meters in the abandoned main building that contains this carcinogenic material, to which is added the presence of radioactive materials, among other toxic solid and liquid compounds.
The Cantabria Residence was built in 1969 and was a health complex consisting of a main building 45 meters high based on a central building, another building to the south for the IDIVAL (Valdecilla Research Institute ), the Provincial Directorate of the Cantabria de Salud Service to the west and an auxiliary maintenance building to the east. All are disused and closed, with the exception of the Idival.
After several renovations over the years, a pathology report on the facades was carried out in 2017, after which the rehabilitation of the whole was excluded and demolition is now opted, which taking into account the configuration of the buildings, in particular the tower, will require very specialized machines for heavy work. and above all work by hand given the significant presence of contaminating material.
The Tower Building consists of 13 floors with similar characteristics, reaching an above-ground height of 46 meters from the ground floor. It features a metal structure on which floors and floors have been installed, all contaminated, as well as the facade walls, which are combined with large windows and blind areas of curtain walls made with chrysotile, a variety of ‘asbestos.
The buildings were generally constructed with roofs made from corrugated sheets of fiber cement (a material containing asbestos) which, over time, were gradually partially covered by metal elements based on profiled sheets.
Regarding the false ceilings inside the main building, the report consulted by elDiario.es estimates that they could also contain asbestos. The floor formwork has already been drilled to contain various installations; Floors are also contaminated, whether ceramic, terrazzo or synthetic. Even vertical downspouts are suspected of containing asbestos.
The conclusions of the report speak not only of asbestos, but also of the existence of radioactive materials: “The treatment and management of waste will constitute a fundamental element of the work, highlighting the presence of a large quantity of fiber cement, as well as the presence of various types of hazardous waste typical of healthcare use (such as equipment containing hazardous substances and items containing radioactive materials such as smoke detectors or lightning rods, or exposed to radiation in x-ray areas, such as coverings with lead foil).
It is estimated that there is asbestos in 6,500 square meters of roofs, 40,000 square meters of sidewalks and formwork plates and 2,500 square meters of facades. The amount of materials affected by asbestos could exceed 4,000 tons, and the amount of inert demolition waste will reach approximately more than 36,000 tons.
Demolition procedure
To dismantle the buildings, the complex will first be isolated from the rest of the city, diverting or disabling all connections with urban networks, mainly those corresponding to water supply, sanitation, lighting and electricity. A scaffolding system must be put in place which will reach 50 meters in height in the tower.
When the phase of manual dismantling of the interior of the different floors of the building complex has entered, the interior will be emptied. “All false ceilings, joinery, glasswork, doors, fixtures and equipment must be removed with the aim of clearing the area for subsequent phases. At this stage, it will be essential to detect items containing hazardous waste to proceed with their correct management,” the report states.
“In the third phase, activities related to the removal of items composed of asbestos-containing materials will be undertaken. Currently, several elements have been detected, the most important being the lost formwork used in most of the floors. The elimination of this element must be carried out by isolating the area of action, forming a bubble with a depressed atmosphere. From there, the different teams of duly equipped operators will carry out the manual crushing and lifting of the lower area, collecting the waste and transporting it for management,” explains the demolition document.
The synthetic coverings will be removed using an asbestos removal system, which will also be applied to the corrugated iron roofs, some downspouts and the curtain wall cladding.
Once the above has been completed and the asbestos problem has been cleared, we will enter the fourth phase, corresponding to the demolition of the structural system of the buildings. The total volume to be demolished would reach more than 120,000 cubic meters, divided into 60,000 meters for the tower building, 30,000 for the central building, 10,000 for the services building and 20,000 for the management building.
The most important step will be the demolition of the tower due to its great height. To do this, heavy machinery with long-arm cranes and large tonnage must be used, for which only specialized companies at the state level have the capacity and experience.
“In the fifth phase, loading, transportation and waste management activities generated during the development process of the previous phases will be undertaken. It is important at this stage to control all the tonnages associated with the different materials in general, with particular interest however for those affected by asbestos, which could reach quantities greater than 4,000 tonnes, if we take into account the thickness of it. support for the forged sidewalk”, concludes the brief unsigned report, of barely a dozen pages, with which the Regional Executive justifies the award of the works to Tragsa.
