MARBLEHEAD — After looking forward to getting the ball rolling on the Transfer Station renovations, contractors discovered hidden issues when removing the old compactor that will lead to a further delay in completion.
On Tuesday, contractors assigned to replace the old compactor, in what workers at the station call “the pit,” found problems involving the steel flooring and some of the infrastructure of the chute.
After discovering these issues, contractors stopped immediately, and the architect was called to send a structural engineer to evaluate the problems and create a plan to fix them. Once the plan is in place a steel company will need to be hired to make the corrections.
“I was comparing it to living in a historic house,” Board of Health member Tom McMahon said. “We just renovated it, and you think it’s going to go easy and then you open a wall and you realize, ‘wait a minute there’s sticks holding this house together.’”
This has been a recurring problem in Marblehead as the same issue happened with the Marblehead High School roof. Once designers were able to access the roof, they found further issues with the HVAC systems which is leading to the delay in a roof replacement.
McMahon explained the compactor was very old. Throughout its 20-year life span, giant trucks have been disposing of heavy and large amounts of waste. Over time the repeated action has caused the infrastructure to deteriorate.
Although these repairs will come at a cost, there is a “revolving fund that is decently padded,” McMahon said. The fund is made exactly for situations similar to this, any unaccounted-for costs that may come up once the project gets underway.
McMahon did not offer an exact timeline for how long the repairs will take but did say the operation is timely.
“It’s an urgent thing,” McMahon said, “because every day we‘re losing money if we don’t do it. I have to imagine it’s trying to get done real quick.”
In the meantime, the residential area of the transfer station is still open for trash and recycling as well as the recycling area for any commercial companies with a permit.
