AVON LAKE, Ohio — Part of a historic power plant in Avon Lake will soon be imploded.
In the weeks ahead, crews will work to safely take down a portion of the nearly 100-year-old structure along Lake Road.
The Avon Lake Power Plant closed back in 2022.
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Avon Lake Environmental Redevelopment Group officials confirmed they will implode the boiler building.
Then, they plan to take down the smoke stack and precipitator at a later date.
Crews will use controlled explosives to carry out this plan.
Avon Lake Mayor Mark Spaetzel says there is no word on an exact date for the project just yet.
"We don't want this to become a spectator sport sort of thing. We want folks to be safe," Spaetzel said.
However, he says the implosion will likely happen sometime before mid-August.
Residents will receive a notification one week in advance.
The city will then send a 30-minute warning of the exact implosion time through the Alert Avon Lake notification system.
A 1,200-foot exclusion zone is planned for safety reasons, but few homes are in that area.
Spaetzel confirms a couple of businesses are in the area, but he says everyone has been appropriately notified of the upcoming action plan.
The day the implosion happens, Lake Road will shut down between Moore and Miller roads for one hour, depending on the dust condition.
He encourages everyone to plan ahead.
"When this thing implodes there will be dust. We're letting people know that, if you're sensitive to dust. When you get that half hour notice, you want to take the proper precautions, whether it's closing windows, turning off air-conditioning units, the dust will dissipate," Spaetzel said.
The property is roughly 43 acres.
Significant plans exist for its future once the site is cleared and the plant is demolished.
Spaetzel says highlighting the lakefront is vital.
"We want to increase that access to the Lake for not only our residents but the region. Then, balance of the property outside. What may be public access will be development for housing, potentially office, retail, restaurants. It would be a complex full of mixed use buildings and offices and again more houses," Spaetzel said.
The company will re-mediate the land and sell it for further development.
The total time frame for all buildings to come down is August 2025.
Residents are encouraged to sign up for alerts here.
You can also find updates about the status of the project here.
Spaetzel says the plant has been decommissioned for a while now.
The company is using dust mitigation techniques when they bring down the plant to limit the amount of dust.
They are using air quality monitoring, and so is the city.
He confirms asbestos was removed last year and the year before, and there's none left.
