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OPG Implosion a smashing success says site manager

It only took around six seconds for the structure to drop, but was the result of thousands of hours of work.

THUNDER BAY – Residents all over Thunder Bay and as far as Shuniah have reported hearing the blast from the implosion of boilers two and three at the former Ontario Power Generation Station Thursday night which site manager, Jeremy Later, says went off according to plan even if ahead of schedule.

“Last night went excellent, we couldn’t be happier. It went according to plan. Everyone involved from Rakowski Energetics to Budget Demolition, to Englobe, our engineers. It went perfect, we’re super excited for how it went,” he said.

”And we just had to do it last night. A little sooner, but, the weather conditions were perfect, and obviously everyone’s seen that it rained a little bit so that helped keep some of the dust down and every day we keep this thing standing it becomes a little bit more of a safety issue as you can expect with the explosives inside the building.”

It only took around six seconds for the structure to drop, but was the result of thousands of hours of work.

This blast was the third and final implosion of the deconstruction process with the rest of the work that’s needed to be done on the site being handled with machinery according to Later.

“This will all be done with machines now. We chop it all up to about two to four feet in length and it all gets recycled,” he said. “So everything you see behind me right now is 100 per cent recycled.”

Later says that they will be leaving the old office space standing while they decide on whether or not they will sell or re-develop the site.

"Boiler 1 and turbine 1 are still up, we use that kind of to block the office building so no damage could happen to that and it's a good windshield for us,” he said. “But later on once we get boilers two and three all cleaned up, that will all be done with machines again.”

As it stands, the work is planned to be completed by April 2023 with some parties already interested in purchasing the land.



Justin Hardy

About the Author: Justin Hardy

Justin Hardy is a reporter born and raised in the Northwest.
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