Downtown demolition well underway at future courthouse site

Published 10:30 am Monday, August 19, 2024

As demolition of existing buildings gets underway, county and project officials outlined what residents can expect downtown.

“We want to leave the roads open around there while doing that demo,” County Judge Neal Franklin said. “We don’t want to interfere with anybody any more than we already are.”

The demolition will employ excavators and backhoe equipment and proceed in three quadrants. Starting on the south side of Erwin Street, the work will move clockwise to Spring, Ferguson and Fannin streets. The project is estimated to take four to five weeks to complete.

Erwin Street off of Spring Avenue is currently closed and will remain closed throughout the demolition. However, the remaining streets will remain open, and no additional closures are planned for this project.

“You can still get around right now, so it’ll be exactly like it is now,” Franklin said. “There’ll be no change as they’re doing the demo. We’ve already got all the fences up that we need…The way you see it now is the way it’s going to be.”

Crews have been busy. As of Monday, only one building along Spring Avenue remains.

The county said the New York Store building had been without a roof for so long that two full-size trees had grown inside. A pile of tires was also found.

Stephen Flournoy, Hoar Construction project executive, said the team will systematically demolish portions of each building using several excavators. An engineered demolition plan was designed to address each of the block’s three quadrants.

“We’re demoing all of the visible portions of the structures on the block and then we also will be removing all of the underground characteristics,” Flournoy said. “Everything will be removed that’s visible to the eye right now, as well as any underground components of those buildings.”

Some buildings have crawl spaces with foundations, while others have full basements. Crews are required to remove basement-level footings and foundations. In some areas of the block, the ground will be flat, while in others, there will be holes where basement elements were removed.

“Construction traffic will continue. It will be steady for the next several years. So just be aware of dump trucks, large trucks and trailers coming up the road,” Flournoy said.

Traffic on Erwin Street has been drastically reduced, as the only access is now a right turn off South Fannin. This change impacts a few people on the south side of the job along Erwin Street, leading back to Beckham.

However, on Ferguson Street, traffic will continue to feed the parking garage construction site for the next couple of months. The volume will increase again with construction trucks and equipment arriving for the Phase Two courthouse project.

Smith County will continue to post updates on its Facebook page, and residents can use the website CreateTyler.com to view an interactive map that shows projects in progress, completed, road closures and more.

The website is a joint effort between the City of Tyler, Fitzpatrick Architects and 14Forty Marketing & Consulting. Residents can access details on each project, including dates, builders, concept renderings and more.

“It’s supposed to make sure and inform everybody, before they come down here,” Franklin said.

Residents have expressed concerns about the loss of historic buildings due to progress. Franklin acknowledges these concerns and emphasizes the need for expansion to accommodate growth.

“We hate to lose historic buildings,” Franklin said. “I know it sounds cheesy, but we’re going back and building a new historic building that we hope is going to be there well over 100 years.”

The county has hired a photographer to capture images of all historic buildings and notable façade details. These black and white photographs will be displayed in the new courthouse to showcase and preserve the area’s historical significance.

Additionally, the county will create a written history to accompany the photos, offering a detailed look at the area’s past.

“We hired a gentleman to write up the history of all of those buildings, everybody who’s actually owned or had a business and that kind of thing. He’s doing the historical nature of all those buildings, as well as the interesting aspects of the construction,” Franklin said.

All historic monuments and memorials will be relocated to the south side of the courthouse.

“We’re doing our best to respect the historical nature of all this,” Franklin said.

The construction of the new courthouse is scheduled to begin by late October, with the parking garage also set to open around the same time.