By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — After the unsuccessful implosion attempt of the former heating plant at the Loring Commerce Centre, the building is finally coming all the way down, even if only piece by piece.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
The large excavator, shown at right-center of the photo, rested in yesterday afternoon’s rain. According to project officials, the excavator is scheduled to completely demolish the former heating plant at the Loring Commerce Centre.
A project status report regarding the former plant was presented to the Loring Development Authority (LDA) Board of Directors on Sept. 14 by President and CEO of the LDA Carl Flora. As Flora explained, a giant excavator with a shear on the end of it is currently at the site, and the machine will be used to take the building down.
“The demo contractor told me that he believes that about two weeks after the shear gets going, all the steel will be on the ground,” he explained, “and then about two months after that, the site will be totally finished.”
Loring Bio Energy Project Manager Hayes Gahagan attended the meeting and provided the board with a bit of background on the project.
As he explained, when Portland-based Engineered Products (EP) was contracted for the demolition of the building, the initial course of action was to use a high-reach shear crane to take the former heating plant down.
“But for the existence of Internet antennas on the stacks, we would have proceeded in early spring with the high-reach crane project,” Gahagan explained. “We took a delay to get those antennas down, and that delay caused the loss of the reservation of the high-reach crane.”
Officials with EP contacted Gahagan regarding delay-oriented schedule concerns, and presented the option of an implosion by subcontracting with highly recommended Precision Explosives, based out of New York.
“We were all very disappointed that [the building] didn’t come down in three seconds, like we expected, but the high-reach crane was then re-ordered,” Gahagan explained.
Disassembly of the building was further delayed when Hurricane Irene rolled through the Northeast, as the wide-load permits required to transport the crane from Buffalo, N.Y. to northern Maine were cancelled due the weather event.
The morning that the LDA board met, the crane was already chipping away at the sturdy structure.
“In the big picture, the net time will be about the same by the time they clean the site,” Gahagan explained, adding that the cost to LBE will not be any more or any less than expected.
“Now hopefully you’ll be able to drive by in two or three weeks and we’ll have the clean site that we had anticipated at about the same time [as originally planned].”
Flora also explained to the board why, possibly, the building didn’t come down as planned.
“It’s my understanding that the explosives are designed to cut right through the steel columns with heat,” he explained, offering his understanding that the explosives were not sufficient to penetrate the column instantly in a number of locations, which is why the building didn’t fall.
