New timeline given for smokestack demolition

Demolition of the Sinclair smokestack will require a special crane and might take two weeks to complete.

Greg Eyerly, the city's flood recovery director, said workers might start on the project after the July Fourth holiday, rather than next week as originally planned.

Eyerly met this morning with city staff, representatives of the city's Historic Preservation Commission and D.W. Zinser, the Walford-based contractor.

The commission has recommended saving the 41-foot-tall smokestack plinth, or base, after the City Council this week voted to demolish the smokestack.

Eyerly said special equipment is needed to reduce dust emissions and “so the whole thing doesn't fall down at once.”

“We're not going to blow it up; we're not going to hit it with a wrecking ball,” he said.

The 180-foot-tall smokestack will likely be taken down in sections.

Eyerly said the demolition could damage the plinth, but that workers will try to save the base, which is made of standard bricks and said to be structurally sound.

Some people, including library representatives, have asked to save the brick pieces, but Eyerly said that is an unknown at this point.

Debris from the former meatpacking plant is treated as asbestos-containing as its being disposed.

He said the brick pieces could be tested for asbestos.