Edmonton's Coliseum won't come down for at least 2 more years

It's been seven years and counting.

The Northlands Coliseum was closed in 2017 and it's expected to take at least another two years before the building is demolished. 

The City of Edmonton says work is underway, by a third party, to determine what is needed to demolish the 50-year-old building.  

Planning and design for the project will begin this year, the city's department of integrated infrastructure services said in an email to CBC News this week. 

"Once planning is complete, the abatement of hazardous materials and demolition will be scheduled and is estimated to take 18-24 months," the city said. 

That timeframe isn't surprising to Kyle Davidson, the president of All About Abatement, a company that specializes in remediating and removing hazardous material.

"The sheer size of the Coliseum is going to be the main challenge," Davidson said of the 470,000-square-foot building. 

Davidson said it will take months to remove toxic material safely.

"Asbestos abatement and hazardous material portions of jobs like this can take twice as long as the actual demolition of the superstructure," he said in an interview this week. "It's a labour-intensive removal for a job this size."

It would entail removing more than asbestos, lead and mould.

"Every area of this building could have older types of lights inside them that have mercury style bulbs, PCB ballasts," he said. "There could be delaminating lead paint in sections that needs removal prior to the demolition happening as well."

It would take considerable time to set up containment parameters, machines and equipment, Davidson said.

Inspections would take place throughout the job and when it's finished, he noted.  

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