FORT KNOX, Ky. — A team of engineers have opened a chapter in the continuing saga of demolition of the old Ireland Army Community Hospital.
While Phase 2 of the project has been ongoing for over a year, the massive nine-story facility still stood over the Fort Knox landscape unscathed— a sight people have become accustomed to since it opened for business in 1957. All that changed on Aug. 2.
Visit Fort Knox’s official Flickr site HERE for more pictures of the demolition project.
Officials from the Army Corps of Engineers in Louisville brought in a large crane, attached a 10,000 pound wrecking ball to it, and have begun work to demolish the high-rise wings of the facility. Corps of Engineers project manager J. Scott Hennig said the wrecking ball is necessary to safely tear down the top five or six floors of the building.
Once the engineers reach a safe height with the wrecking ball, they will resume final demolition of the facility with low-level destruction and cleanup equipment, Hennig said. The wrecking ball portion should be completed in about six to eight weeks.
Hennig explains the need for the wrecking ball HERE:
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