Eric Kelly to follow up ConAgra blast with mill stack implosion.
In a matter of weeks, property owner Doug Melching has plans for an event that will leave no one wondering if the Sappi paper mill on Muskegon Lake is coming down.
The property’s largest smokestack — an industrial icon for Muskegon — will come down in the matter of seconds. Melching Inc., the demolition company from Nunica, has hired a world expert demolition explosives company to bring down the nearly 300-foot stack.
No doubt the work of Advanced Explosive Demolition from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, will bring about a huge interest from all over West Michigan. The company’s plans will first get a review from the Muskegon City Commission.
Muskegon City Manager Bryon Mazade said city officials have begun discussions with Melching and his explosives contractor about razing the stack — a masonry structure that is 30 feet in diameter at its base, Melching said.
The plan is to explode the base of the paper mill stack in such a way as to have it tumble north to the ground toward Muskegon Lake, Melching said. The stack is close to Lakeshore Drive, which is to the south.
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