The Harbor Club in downtown San Diego decommissioned the helipads on both of its towers, meaning buckets will need to remove thousands of pounds of concrete and steel during the next three weeks.
Removing them requires a team of workers jackhammering the concrete and steel helipad and passing thousands of buckets down several flights of stairs.
“This is the best project in San Diego. I think every contractor in town wants to be here,” said Tom Brooks, CEO of Cornerstone Managing Partners.
The Harbor Club and Cornerstone Managing Partners worked for months to decommission the helipads so Cornerstone could install new, safer machinery for window washers.
The windows on the East and West towers of the Harbor Club have not been cleaned in five years because the old window washing system did not comply with the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) regulations. The owners of the towers could not install the new swing stage for its window washers unless it removed the helipads off both towers.
“It’s going to have a counterweight system and a boom with articulating arms that will stretch out a hundred feet,” described Brooks.
The helipads were required for the buildings when they were built in the 1990s. They were to be used for fast medical and emergency responses. However, the rules have changed, and the helipads are no longer required.
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A spokeswoman for Cornerstone Managing Partners said the helipads were never used.
Construction workers have already removed more than 97,000 pounds of concrete and steel from the West Tower.
“That’s a lot of work,” said Brooks.
Brooks expected the helipads to be gone within three weeks and the new swing stages to be ready by the summer of 2020.
