ASBESTOS ABATEMENT REMOVAL PROJECTS
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Asbestos abatement and removal from old buildings is often a choice between demolition or remediation. Due to potentially hazardous procedures, the project should be done professionally and with great care.

July 30, 2009 – Older buildings across the country, especially schools and libraries, contain significant amounts of asbestos that represent a threat to public health. The trend today calls for the removal of asbestos materials lodged inside building infrastructures.

Asbestos abatement removal projects are often a choice between demolishing the building, or performing asbestos remediation and returning the original structure to use.

The decision is frequently based on the historic value of the building, not the cost so much. According to one study on asbestos abatement removal, it is as costly and time-consuming to demolish a building with asbestos, as it is to maintain the integrity of the original structure.

This is primarily because asbestos abatement has to take place even where demolition is planned, and because hazardous waste landfills are becoming increasingly crowded, leading to higher and higher costs for dumping asbestos debris.

In fact, the real cost of restoring, reusing and re-purposing older buildings lies in renovation and retrofitting, not in asbestos remediation.

One library’s story

More libraries in the country, both public and collegiate, will undergo asbestos abatement removal of some kind in the near future and have to choose between demolition or remediation.

In Minneapolis, the historic Southeast Library (designed by renowned Minnesota modernist architect Ralph Rapson in 1964) was closed in 2006 as part of budget reorganization, but will soon reopen thanks to the Minneapolis/Hennepin County Library systems merger.

Southeast Library will ultimately undergo asbestos abatement removal and the installation of a new roof, but its demolition has been avoided thanks to historians who appealed to the City of Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission and the City Council to designate the building as an historic landmark.

Time to seek justice

Despite the fatal consequences associated with asbestos exposure, asbestos is still imported and used in the United States for its insulation properties. The United States imported and used an estimated 1,820 tons of asbestos in 2007, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Weitz & Luxenberg has protected the legal rights of workers and residents injured by asbestos for 25 years – longer than most law firms in the nation. And in that time the firm's mesothelioma lawyers have won one billion dollars in verdicts and settlements for clients.

If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, and seek FREE legal guidance and answers to your concerns, please notify us through the communication form here. We will pursue your claim with vigilance to help you pay for medical bills, future and past lost wages, and damages.

Please know, Weitz & Luxenberg works on a contingency basis, so there is no cost to you until we win a settlement or a verdict.