Juneau’s Gunakadeit Park will soon be torn down. The park will serve as the staging area for the larger demolition of the Gastineau Apartments. Rorie Watt, the city’s engineering director, said the contractors should have the park dissembled within a couple of weeks.
“They’re going to be moving pieces of art and the decorative fence, and setting up barriers and traffic control signs,” Watt said.
The decorative metal pieces would be salvaged, but the city hasn’t identified a use for them yet.
The flow of traffic isn’t expected to be interrupted until after the holiday season. That’s when some of the riskier demolition will take place, and the front facing wall of the Gastineau Apartments will be torn down.
CBC Construction was given the notice to proceed after a Nov. 10 Juneau Assembly meeting.
The Gastineau Apartments burned in November 2012. The city and owners James Barrett and Camilla Barrett have been in a long dispute over the maintenance of the building. The Barretts were served numerous times over the years with notices to clean up or secure the site.
The project is supposed to be completed by the end of April.
