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A prepared implosion of the boiler house at the former Cheswick Generating Station in Springdale is the safest way to take down the structure, the president of Controlled Demolition Inc. testified Monday.
Mark Loizeaux, president of CDI, testified before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge John T. McVay Jr. as part of an injunction hearing. Sixteen Springdale residents filed for the injunction last month to halt the implosion of the boiler house, which was scheduled for Sept. 22.
The implosion has been paused until McVay rules on the matter. The case continues at 9 a.m. Tuesday, and McVay plans to visit the would-be implosion site at noon Wednesday.
The plaintiffs allege that the June 2 implosion of the two smokestacks at the former power plant caused property damage and health hazards. They claim an implosion of the boiler house would negatively impact the community.
Loizeaux, who said he has spent most of his life around controlled demolitions, testified the chimney implosion and the boiler house implosion would be “180 degrees different” from each other. It’s “structurally impossible” for the chimney and the boiler house implosion to have the same outcome, he said.
On June 2, the chimneys fell exactly where they were intended to land, Loizeaux said. But an air rush out of the taller chimney caught a tree and hit power lines and poles along Pittsburgh Street. A steel liner in the taller chimney may have been why the taller chimney remained intact in the air, he said.
Property damage was not caused by the blast’s decibels or vibration levels, and no fly rock was generated by the detonation of explosives, Loizeaux testified.
The state Department of Environmental Protection found violations from the blast and asked CDI to produce a corrective action plan for the boiler house implosion. The DEP filed 16 summary charges against CDI in District Judge David Sosovicka’s court, but CDI objected and pleaded not guilty. That case is pending. CDI also appealed the DEP’s findings to the Environmental Hearing Board, said an attorney for the company, Anthony DeLuca.
In its corrective action plan, portions of which were presented in court, CDI said the felling of the chimneys and the boiler house will be different.
Dust mitigation was not in the scope of CDI’s contract for the implosions, Loizeaux said.
A portion of the corrective action plan displayed in court said there would be a substantial quantity of dust and insulation dispersed by the collapsing boiler house, but how it is cleaned up is the responsibility of demolition contractor Grant Mackay Co.
Graham Miller, Grant Mackay’s safety officer, testified that his responsibilities for the June 2 implosion were to notify residents by going door to door in areas near the power plant.
“We were responsible for the dust mitigation and control plan,” Miller said.
Miller and his Grant Mackay co-worker, Jeremy Williams, fielded more than 200 calls for service after the implosion, with issuescovering electrical outages, broken windows, some cleanup and car washes and a few structural damages, Miller testified.
When it was time to create the dust mitigation plan for the boiler house, “we knew we had to do a lot more,” Miller said.
Some of those plans included removing fiberglass installation from the exterior of the building, washing down boilers, having additional water trucks and street sweepers and using water cannons.
Kellen Stepler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kellen by email at kstepler@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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