NEO Corporation was awarded a contract from Winthrop University for the abatement and demolition of the Peabody Building Complex to make room for a new building complex. This project was the second phase of Winthrop’s major renewal/renovation of their campus. The first project consisted of the demolition of the 150,000 square foot, five stories Breazeale Apartments/ Dormitory by NEO three years earlier.

NEO met with Winthrop’s project team and together created a careful plan to demolish the Peabody Complex which contained four buildings. These buildings consisted of an enclosed Olympic size swimming pool, the original gymnasium, dance studios, and several classrooms buildings that were located in an extremely high student traffic area. In addition to the high student traffic NEO had to take special precautions to the sub-grade demolition next to the main roadway which had to remain opened to all vehicular traffic.

NEO abated, removed and disposed of various building materials prior to the demolition process. These items included asbestos containing materials such as pipe insulation, flooring, roof shingles, flashing, mastics and ceiling textures. In addition to the asbestos containing materials being removed prior to the demolition, mercury/PCB containing light bulbs, ballasts and flooring materials were abated.

NEO conducted multiple waste reduction and materials salvage operations on this project. Items that were recycled or reclaimed consisted of steel, aluminum, wood, mature trees, bricks and other masonry items. 95 % of the masonry was crushed onsite and reclaimed.