Friday afternoon at West High School, as buses full of children left school grounds, a crew from Coldfoot Environmental was demolishing one of the older parts of Anchorage's first high school.
The Cove, as it is known, was the original library at the school. It is being demolished to make way for 12 new career and technical education classrooms.
Coldfoot was called in by the general contractors because of its experience with asbestos abatement.
A large excavator fitted with powerful mechanical claws began to take bites out of the building. First it knocked out the glass windows, which were of a type that could not be recycled.
Then the excavator began to tear apart the ring-shaped roof, tearing through ring after ring of thick rebar. After about 45 minutes, the first sections of roof began to come down.
The contractors will work through the weekend to demolish the building.
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