MetroHealth's parking garage debris finds new life at Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport
Southpoint Garage is more than just a memory - it's also tons and tons of demolition debris.
After the initial demolition, MetroHealth's partner, Independence Excavating Inc., began breaking up the remains of the garage and separating the materials into streams of concrete and steel.
The entire garage will have a new life.
The steel will be recycled and the concrete will be crushed and reused. Typical reuses include gravel and paving materials. Reuse will occur at various locations in northeast Ohio, including Burke Lakefront Airport. Everyone will know exactly where everything goes once the debris reaches its new destinations because the demolition was the first to occur under MetroHealth's new reporting process for construction and demolition debris on major construction projects.
"The new process requires our vendors to tell us where our material goes," explains Sarah O'Keefe, Director of Sustainability. "From now on, we will receive reports on the amount of debris recycled or reused vs. landfilled, the destination of those materials and how they were reused or recycled. This allows us to truly understand the impact of waste materials coming from our construction and demolition activities. It's all part of our commitment to understand the environmental, community and economic impact of our operations and construction projects."
Debris from the garage is expected to be cleared from the site by the end of February, 2019.
Founded in 1837, MetroHealth is leading the way to a healthier you and a healthier community through service, teaching, discovery, and teamwork. Cuyahoga County’s public, safety-net hospital system, MetroHealth meets people where they are, providing care through five hospitals, four emergency departments and more than 20 health centers. Each day, our nearly 9,000 employees focus on providing our community with equitable healthcare — through patient-focused research, access to care, and support services — that seeks to eradicate health disparities rooted in systematic barriers. For more information, visit metrohealth.org.
