The demolition has begun on Windsor’s former city hall.

Demolition of the building at 350 City Hall Square has been mostly focused on preparation, but the real destruction began on Tuesday.

Two massive excavators spent most of the day shredding the single-storey front entrance to the city headquarters -- which opened in 1956.

It's the first in a number of phases to bring the former council chambers and administrative building to the ground.

The city admitted in May that crews found more asbestos in the ceiling and basement of the old building, which added an additional $900,000 cost to the project.

Demolition is scheduled to resume Wednesday. That's when crews will take on the north wall that faces the civic plaza and the Detroit River.

The new city hall chewed up $30 million of a $44-million budget.

The remaining $14 million will be spent on the demolition of the old facility, as well as a new civic plaza.

The city is hoping to achieve an 80 per cent to 85 per cent recycle rate with materials. This will save money on backfill, as well as the cost that would have been involved to transfer material to the landfill.

Budget Environmental Disposal Inc. is the demolition contractor for the project, with Kyle Bouma acting as the Project Manager. The City’s Consultant, DST Consulting Engineers Inc. (DST) will administer the project, with Anas Saleh acting as the site Project Lead.

The work is expected to wrap up by September.

More than 280 staff moved into the new City Hall during the May Victoria Day weekend in 2018.