Karl Baker

The News Journal

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the hours of the road closure. The current version has been corrected.

Maryland Avenue in Wilmington’s Browntown neighborhood will close this weekend as crews tear down the skeleton of a building facing the street at a Delaware Transit Corp. facility.

The work is part of a $8.6 million project to shift DART’s paratransit base operations from a yard on West Second Street to the Browntown facility, at 119 Lower Beech St.

Maryland Avenue will close between Maple and Lower Beech streets from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m on Saturday and Sunday, as crews bring down the building that sits adjacent to Maryland Avenue.

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The closure is a precaution in case a wall comes down unexpectedly, DART Chief Executive John Sisson said. The demolition will make room for parking spaces and will remove an aesthetic blight on the neighborhood, he said.

“There was some concerns [from neighbors] about the buildings that they looked abandoned,” Sisson said. The buildings "are three stories high and right up against the sidewalk."

Partially torn-down buildings could be seen by drivers on I-95 on Thursday, but the structural steel remained in place, Sisson said. In earlier years DART had attempted to lease the buildings, which were once part of a DuPont engineering facility, with no success, Sisson said.

Maryland Avenue will remain open for DART buses during the closure.

Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow him on Twitter @kbaker6.