NEW BEDFORD — Monday morning’s snow didn’t change plans for the demolition of the Naval Reserve building in the South End, as an excavator sorted through piles of rubble amid falling flakes to get work rolling on the $55 million expansion of UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST).
Broad sections of the two-story reserve building, which most recently housed SMAST offices, lay in heaps Monday. Michael West, assistant superintendent with Everett-based construction contractor BOND, said demolition of the two-story building should take another one or two days. As he spoke, crews sorted rubble into separate piles of copper, steel, heavy metal and more at the site on South Rodney French Boulevard.
“The main goal is to recycle as much of the old building as we possibly can,” West said.
SouthCoast politicians and UMass Dartmouth officials expressed excitement about the start of a highly anticipated project that some feel was a long time coming.
