Building 406 demolition to be done by mid-summer

By Jim Dresbach, Pentagram staff writerApril 15, 2014

Building 406 demolition to be done by mid-summer
Building 406 on the Fort Myer portion of Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall is currently in the initial stages of demolition. Built in the 1960s, the building between Spates Community Center and the JBM-HH Bowling Center once was a 100-plus room barracks... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - The process of taking apart another Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall building is underway.

The multi-month dismantling of Building 406, a 179,444 square-foot, four-story former barracks, began with "soft demolition" during the third week of March.

Located on McNair Road between Spates Community Center and the JBM-HH Bowling Center on the Fort Myer portion of JBM-HH, the building once housed Soldiers and emergency and recovery teams after the Sept. 11 Pentagon attack in 2001.

"What we call a soft demolition is going on now, and it is taking away hazardous material, taking away windows and taking away the stuff that can be recycled because a requirement at Army level is that 50-plus percent [of debris] has to be recycled," said Directorate of Public Works Project Management Branch Chief Ramon Nieves.

According to officials, Building 406 is the second largest building on JBM-HH and the largest on the Fort Myer portion of the base.

According to the official project schedule, the main demolition and material processing is forecast to start in early May. Beginning at that time through July, joint base drivers can expect to encounter increased truck traffic, but Nieves noted McNair Road drivers will face only brief delays.

"McNair Road will be open other than flag men out there directing traffic," he said.

When the bulldozers and wrecking balls go operational, special safety measures will be in place to control dust and adjacent property. According to Nieves, a water-dousing strategy will be used to keep dust particles to a minimum and structures behind Sheridan Avenue quarters will be protected from falling rubble.

"We will be protecting the garages behind the [Sheridan Road] quarters because the site is right there," Nieves said. "We also are protecting the quarters on [Sheridan Road's] NCO Row and try to keep all debris coming down on the sides [of Building 406] and not the back of the building."

As the Building 406 site will be returned to a 5-acre grassy area, Nieves said that plant and tree removal will be minimal and every effort will be made to save the larger, older trees on the demolition site.

"I don't think there will be that many that we have to take away," Nieves said. "There may be some brush that will have to be removed."

The 50-year-old building has been vacant since 2011. The last groups using the building were a JBM-HH security guard contractor and the joint base tax center.

Charter Environmental of Boston, is in charge of the demolition project.