Demolition of Fall River’s 111-Year Old Bedford Street Police Station Set to Begin Next Week

It has stood empty and decaying for 30 years, so what’s a few more weeks before the ramshackle remains of the old police station on Bedford Street comes down?

Demolition of the approximately 111-year-old, neoclassical structure that served the Fall River Police Department for about 82 years was thought to occur about a month ago.

The city’s building inspector, Glenn Hathaway, explained the delay was caused when Department of Environmental Protection took issue with a demolition plan submitted by the demolition company, Connecticut-based Bestech Inc.

“In a demolition, the protocol is the company hires another company to do the demolition plan, but it wasn’t to the satisfaction of the DEP. So, they had to rewrite it and change some things,” said Hathaway. “So, they wrote plan A, but not plan B and C.”

Hathaway said it is just “trying to protect everybody in this process so there are no hiccups.”

With a demolition plan accepted by the state environmental agency, there is movement afoot at the demolition site, according to Hathaway.

An excavator was brought in on Tuesday morning and Hathaway said a crane is scheduled to be delivered on Thursday.

Hathaway said the company will need time to set up the equipment and said the start of demolition of the main building will not likely start before Monday.

However, the two garages in the rear of the property on High Street on Wednesday, so that may be a route to avoid.

During demolition, Bedford, High and Troy streets will be closed to traffic.