SOMERSET, Mass. (AP) — The single remaining smokestack at Massachusetts’ last coal-fired power plant has been demolished.
A controlled implosion brought down the 500-foot (152-meter) smokestack in seconds at the former Brayton Point power plant in Somerset on Saturday morning. WJAR-TV captured photos and video of the demolition.
Three other chimneys were demolished in March, and two massive cooling towers were taken down in late April. Video from April showed the giant towers along Mount Hope Bay crumple to the ground and a large cloud of dust rise into the air. The company had said that the hulking concrete structures were believed to be the tallest power plant cooling towers ever brought down in a controlled demolition.
The plant had burned coal since 1963, though the cooling towers were not added until decades later. The plant closed in 2017 as environmental groups pushed for cleaner sources of energy generation.
The structures were long considered an eyesore by residents in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The new owners of the property, Commercial Development Co., plan to turn the site into a multi-use facility mainly dedicated to supporting offshore wind farms.
