Five floors of the 13-story Gabe’s Tower have been demolished thus far and while it may appear to be slow progress, City officials said the pace will soon pick up as the project nears the halfway point.
Assistant City Manager Lelan Hancock said contractors have been dropping the wrecking ball onto the higher-level floors one at a time to drop each story down to the floor beneath it.
Using this demolition method helps weaken the structure of each floor before bringing the wrecking ball down, Hancock said. The floors catch debris from the level above, and then that process is continued level by level.
The wrecking ball process will continue until contractors switch tactics and use a high-reach excavator to tear down the floors it can reach.
“It’s just slow, but think of it like a house. You have to establish a foundation and pour the concrete and do all of that first, but there’s nothing to show,” he said. “Then later, progress on the house starts to look like it slows down because they move inside to do all of the electrical work and things of that nature. Those are the things happening with Gabe’s Tower too, but nobody can see it.”
The sheer height of Gabe’s Tower causes the demolition progress to move a little slower too, Hancock said. Around 30-40% of the entire structure has been brought down so far, and the rest of the tower is expected to be gone by October.
