Michelle Slater
A major piece of the Valley’s power producing history will be gone late next week with the final Hazelwood boiler house scheduled to hit the ground.
ENGIE Hazelwood expects the demolition to take place on either Thursday or Friday between 10am and 4pm, subject to favourable wind and cloud cover to mitigate dust and noise.
The final collapse of boiler house 1 follows the demolition of the old power station’s eight chimneys, the previous three boiler houses and all large mining equipment in open cut.
As with the previous demolitions, there will be an exclusion zone set up, and Brodribb Road between Nadenbousch’s Road and Cemetery Avenue will be closed.
Traffic on the Princes Freeway Strzelecki Highway will be slowed with controls in place to stop people from parking on the roadside while demolition is underway.
“While controls have been implemented to reduce external noise emissions as much as possible, local residents are likely to hear a loud noise at the time of the demolition for a few seconds,” an ENGIE spokesman said.
“This is unavoidable, given the size of the structure, and the nature and placement of the explosive charges necessary to safely affect a controlled collapse.”
Hazardous material including asbestos has also been removed and the demolition is not expected to create airborne asbestos outside the immediate works zone.
“Asbestos air monitors will be set up at the site boundary locations and surrounding the fell zone,” the spokesman said.
“All asbestos-contaminated materials will be transported on internal roads to the EPA-licensed, onsite asbestos cell for safe disposal after the boiler houses are demolished.”
Demolition contractor Delta Group is carrying out the collapse under the oversight of WorkSafe Victoria and the Environment Protection Authority.
