Shortening the last smokestack at former Toledo Edison Power Plant

8/29/2014

BY DAVID PATCH
BLADE STAFF WRITER

A portion of the last smokestack at the site of the former Toledo Edison Power Plant in East Toledo is imploded Friday.

The last of the Acme power plant stacks is gone -- mostly.

An explosive demolition team from Oklahoma took down all but the bottom 75 to 105 feet of the old smokestack at 10 a.m. today -- right on time.

The demolition followed the complete toppling of two smaller stacks last month at the former Toledo Edison steam plant along Front Street in East Toledo. The bottom of the last stack is to be converted by the city of Toledo into a lighthouse-styled monument.

Police cordoned off the immediate area half an hour in advance, and spectators gathered around the perimeter, although crowds were much smaller than for the previous demolitions.

PHOTO GALLERY: Smokestack shortened in East Toledo

“They didn’‍t have school today, so I brought them out,” said Brad Watt, of East Toledo, who watched his two sons, Bradley and Bryson, and nephew, Jaden Michaels, hunt grasshoppers in tall grass before the demolition. The Watt boys had seen the previous demolition, but Jaden hadn’‍t.

Several spectators said afterward that it looked like the demolition had destroyed more of the stack than intended, but Ron Gilbert, the project manager for Dykon Explosive Demolition of Tulsa, Okla., said the city’‍s goal of preserving its bottom 75 feet had been met.

Partial demolitions of old brick structures are not precise operations, Mr. Gilbert explained, so the key was that the city got what it wanted and nobody got hurt.