Onlookers gather for Sunday morning implosion.
Contractors spent Tuesday “wrapping” Utica’s Fay Street Warehouse in preparation of Sunday’s early-morning implosion.
A total of 88 pillars inside the building are wrapped in black fabric. Openings in the geo-textile fabric will allow contractors to slide 500 pounds of dynamite into the fabric. Cables on the building’s east side hug the outside walls, with the intention of pulling the collapsing structure to the west and away from the arterial. Even though at its closest point, the southbound lane is only seven feet from the warehouse, contractors and New York Department of Transportation officials are confident no debris will fall on the roadway.
“What we’re hoping to happen here is that once the building is imploded, that it’s going to actually fall away from the arterial, to the west and just lay a little bit over onto Fay Street here,” says James Piccola, a public information officer with the DOT. Piccola says the explosives are being placed strategically to ensure the building falls where planned.
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