Marina City Council approves $4.2 million to remove Fort Ord Barracks

MARINA, Calif. (KION-TV): The Marina City Council approved a $4.2 million contract to remove old Fort Old barracks near Marina High School.

On Aug. 3, the deal was unanimously approved 5-0, and the bid came from Unlimited Environmental Inc. of Long Beach. The buildings are located in the Cypress Knolls and City Park neighborhoods.

Elvie Camacho is an engineering consultant to the City of Marina's Capital Improvement Projects. Camacho stated that 35 buildings along Rendova Road and Third Avenue would be demolished in the first phase.

"We hope to begin the project at the end of the next month," Camacho said.

According to Camacho, the city will have to do hazardous abetment of all buildings that will be demolished.

"We have to basically abet all the asbestos in all of the buildings," Camacho said. "For the next few months, most of the work will be done inside these buildings."

Camacho stated once the abetment is done then, demolition work can begin. All the asbestos will be safely removed, and the buildings will have plastic openings so only certified workers can enter the building.

The Cypress Knolls buildings only have a small number of hazardous materials so the abetment process will be shorter than those buildings in City Park.

In the past, the buildings have been a frequent target of arson. Camacho says there have not been talks of adding additional fencing with the contractor.

"We have not addressed with the contractor if they want to have additional fencing around each building," Camacho said. "This will be discussed during our pre-construction meeting."

The demolition of the buildings at Cypress Knolls and City Park is expected to take six months.