Brayton Point towers to implode April 27

By Bruce Burdett
Posted 2/28/19

SOMERSET — The twin 500-foot cooling towers at the head of Mount Hope Bay will no longer dominate the view from towns all around after April 27.

That’s the day owner …

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Brayton Point towers to implode April 27

Posted

SOMERSET — The twin 500-foot cooling towers at the head of Mount Hope Bay will no longer dominate the view from towns all around after April 27.

That’s the day owner Commercial Development Co. intends to implode the immense Brayton Point structures, a company representative announced at a Tuesday meeting in Somerset Town Hall.

Demolition is expected to take place mid-morning on April 27 (bad weather date of April 28). Traffic on Route 195 will be blocked in the area for about an hour during the implosion; vehicles will be detoured via Route 103.

A raffle to select the person who gets to press the detonator plunger will be held and tickets are being sold at $20 apiece. Proceeds will benefit the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Wall in Fall River.

“To those of you that enjoy a good fireworks show, it’s going to be a great one,” said Stephen Collins, executive vice president of Commercial Development, which owns the towers.

Mr. Collins also updated residents on the status of work in the year since Commercial Development bought the property, once the largest coal fired power plant in New England and the biggest single air polluter, known for the yellow pall once emitted from its stacks and the grit that landed on cars and houses miles away.

Around half of the demolition of structures on the property has been completed so far, he said.

The land will become a multi-use site mostly involved in supporting offshore wind farms to be built out beyond Martha’s Vineyard. Mr. Collins said the site might also be used as a connection point for electricity generated by the offshore wind farms.

Several years ago, a lengthy study involving survey vessels explored the possibility of laying a cable from offshore, past Sakonnet Point, up the Sakonnet River and across Mount Hope Bay to Brayton Point. Several local fishermen were hired to assist in that survey and share their knowledge of possible fisheries impacts.

The Fall River Herald reports that some Brayton Point neighbors voiced surprise and concern that the demolition plan involves imploding the towers. Town leaders said they, too, were caught by surprise.

What will be the possible impact on our homes, several asked, and what about the dust that will be stirred up?

Mr. Collins replied that the lower half of each tower will be wrapped in chain-link fence to ensure that debris stays at the site of the implosion. And he said he does not expect that dust will drift into nearby neighborhoods (although some likely wondered why, then, it is felt necessary to shut down I-195).

The towers, built in 2009 at a cost of $600 million are only a decade old but no longer needed since the closure of the coal power plant.

The towers were built to cool the water being discharged into Mount Hope Bay. That previously hot water, used to cool the power plant, was blamed for killing large numbers of fish and other creatures in the bay.

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