Schlegel Villages expects to remove 100,000 tonnes of contaminated soil — or 1,000 dump-truck loads — before it breaks ground on two long-term care homes on Hamilton Mountain brow hospital lands next year.

Lead from paint is the main contaminant to truck away from the sprawling Fennell Avenue West site where Schlegel aims to start building the pair of LTC homes with 512 beds between them by March.

“The site’s contaminated basically because the previous hospital and buildings were buried on-site,” Kevin Bushell, director of site development, told The Spectator during a drop-in information session at Mohawk College this week.

Remnants of the old psychiatric site, including a brick powerhouse and trades building, have been demolished to get at the soil and open up the space.

But non-p

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