Demolition crews to start tearing down Bangors old police station on Court Street

The former Bangor Police Department building on Court Street.

Posted June 06, 2014, at 4 p.m.

BANGOR, Maine Demolition crews will start tearing down Bangors gutted former police headquarters on Monday, the city announced Friday.

Police vacated the 73-year-old Court Street building in 2006 to move into the new Summer Street location.

The demolition process is expected to last several weeks. The project started in May when crews began pulling hazardous materials from the site to make it safe for demolition. The building is a shell.

The project is expected to cost about $1.1 million. The demolition itself will cost $400,000, and a $201,000 retaining wall will be built to prevent a portion of Court Street, which is stabilized by the building, from sliding downhill into the Kenduskeag Stream. The remainder is for remediation of hazardous materials and other work.

The city considered renovating the building and opening it for some other use, but that would have required extensive structural work and hazard abatements, bringing cost estimates in to the $20 million-$30 million range.

Instead, plans call for a roughly 40-space parking lot on top of the hill, potentially for use by county employees who work in the nearby former courthouse.

Court Street remains closed to through traffic Between Hammond and Boynton streets as crews replace sewer lines in the area. Only local traffic will be allowed to pass.

Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter @nmccrea213.

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Demolition crews to start tearing down Bangors old police station on Court Street