An iconic part of the Lake Charles skyline will be coming down Saturday morning.
The Capital One Tower will be imploded at 8:00 a.m.
“This is the tallest building that we’ve ever demolished, and so this is new territory for us,” says Josh Stevens, senior project manager for Lloyd D. Nabors Demolition. “To the top of the building itself is about 315 feet. And then if you add the radio tower, you’re looking at 375 feet.”
Most of the tower’s windows were blown out from Hurricane Laura’s 130-mile per hour plus winds four years ago.
It stood in disrepair ever since; and given the cost to bring it back up to code, the only viable option was to knock it down.
“It’s going to come basically straight down and then fall to the north,” says Stevens. “And we’re expecting it to cover about 50%-75% of the parking lot that’s right in front of it. And we’re expecting the debris pile to be approximately four to six stories tall.”
The tower was put up in 1983 and had been beset by low occupancy for years, even before Hurricane Laura tore it apart.
Although weather is looking good for tomorrow morning, Stevens says the demolition would proceed, rain or shine.
“Weather really wouldn’t affect it unless it was some serious event like a hurricane or a massive lightning storm,” Stevens says. “Even a lightning storm though, we would just wait until the lightning passed, and then we would do it later on that morning.”
It’s unclear what will eventually become of the site.
You can listen to the entire interview with Josh Stevens here.
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