THUNDER BAY – Two more boilers at the former Ontario Power Generating site on Mission Island are set to come down this Friday.
Jeremy Later, site manager with Budget Demolition, says this is the third and final implosion in the deconstruction process, which began in September 2021.
”The whole project has been going great so far,” he said. “We’re hitting our timelines and even health and safety have been excellent so far.”
The smokestack was the first part of the old Thunder Bay power generating station to crash down in September of last year.
The second major stage of demolition took place a few months later in December, with the implosion of the plant's electrostatic precipitators.
The final implosion for the project will take down boilers two and three on Friday, with crews currently attaching explosives to the columns of the structure.
Later says that while the method will be similar to the last implosion, it will impact a much larger part of the structure this time around.
"I think last time was around 10,000 tons we blasted of steel that would be toppling over,” he said. “We're predicting around 30,000 this time so maybe around three times the size, so yeah, we're looking forward to it."
The implosion is planned for Friday morning, though it could happen later in the day depending on the weather, and Later says that the best place to view the implosion would likely be Mount McKay.
