Demolition of the former Williamsburg Community Hospital began on Tuesday, Sept. 4.

The work is expected to take three months. Next summer, the College of William & Mary will begin construction on a new 109,000 square-foot building to house the School of Education and various other departments. The new structure will cost $48 million.

For the last several months the college has used more than 200 spaces at the old hospital site for student parking. That will continue during the demolition process.

S. B. Cox of Richmond was hired to raze the old hospital. Work will commence at 8 a.m. each day. The new W&M School of Education should be finished in the spring of 2010.

Work will begin with hand crews removing non-masonry and non-metal components. The remainder of the demolition will be conducted by crews operating hydraulic excavators.

The college completed a study of the property and determined that retrofitting the old hospital would cost about the same as tearing the building down and starting over.