Bridger Hall demolition may cause little disruption to campus, surrounding area

Noise pollution could disturb area, but project not expected to raise much dust

Trail Co-editor

Northwest College students and the Powell community can expect a lot of noise but little dust form the demolition of Bridger Hall.
On Monday, Oct. 10 the demolition company, Brisco LLC of Westminster, Colo., came to campus to begin preliminary work for the demolition of the hall. The first actions include disconnecting power, gas and water lines to the building and setting up a safety fence around the site, according the Kim Mills, vice president of administrative affairs. These primary actions will take place until the start of demolition.
Mills predicts the actual demolition of the building will not start until Oct. 17 or 18. Brisco will use trackhoes to tear down the building in the most appropriate manner. The crew will working from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. to cause as little noise disturbance as possible.
Brisco will also spray Bridger Hall throughout the demolition with fire hoses to keep the dust at a minimum. Mills said it will not be an exciting demolition with a mushroom cloud of dust erupting from the falling building.
In August all of the asbestos was removed from the building to prevent any problems that asbestos can cause when dispersed into the air. This process pushed back the available start date to this week.
The project should cause little disruption to classes and other campus activities, but the east side of the south Bridger parking lot will be fenced off for material and equipment storage.
The students who live in Colter Hall are in for a “crazy next couple of weeks,” said Hanna Fairfield, resident director of Colter Hall. Due to Colter’s proximity to Bridger, the residential life office is trying to have fun with the possibly irritating situation. According to Fairfield and Kristie Sullivan, housing and summer conference coordinator, several activities have been setup with a construction theme. Monday the day that the work started Fairfield offered breakfast in the hall for her residents. The students will also receive earplugs later into the project to prevent disturbance to those who like to sleep past 7:30 a.m.
Fairfield and Sullivan will also put together mailbox stuffers for the students. For the hall’s Halloween activity, scary movie night, popcorn will be passed out in yellow construction hats. The students who attend the hall activities will be entered into a drawing for prizes to be given out the last night of construction at a hall dinner.
The project is expected to continue until Oct. 31.
NWC has also done work with the Powell residents who live across the street from Bridger Hall on Bernard, Fifth and Cheyenne sts. The college prepared letters and demolition schedules for the neighborhood and the NWC Trail Blazers hand-delivered the letters to the people who live around the hall in order to keep the impact in the area to a minimum.