BATON ROUGE (AP) — Seven companies are competing for the contract to tear down the abandoned LSU Earl K. Long Medical Center in north Baton Rouge.
Office of Facility Planning Director Mark Moses told The Advocate’s Marsha Shuler the contract is scheduled to be awarded in December and work should begin in early 2015.
Moses said asbestos needs to be removed before the demolition of the Airline Highway landmark can take place.
"You might not see much at first because much (of the work) will be interior to the building," Moses said. "We expect to be inside for several months before they start demolishing the building."
The project designer had estimated costs at close to $2 million. The state capital construction budget approved this year includes $2 million for the project.
Moses said officials will be looking at pricing as well as whether they are responsive to the bid specifications.
The LSU charity hospital has been vacant since April 2013 when its inpatient operations and medical education activities moved to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in south Baton Rouge. The hospital became a casualty of the Jindal administration's privatization of the LSU hospital system.
Known as "the Earl," the hospital opened its doors to its first patient in March 1968 and provided care for the poor and uninsured for 45 years.
