Even before the sun is up Friday, DTE workers and construction — or more accurately, de-construction — crews will be ready to take down the idled Trenton Channel power plant stacks with a boom, shockwaves, and a cloud of dust.
The demolition — set for 7 a.m. — is expected to last less than a minute, and change the Downriver skyline.
Many Grosse Ile residents, who have lived with the power plant for years, are expected to watch — if they can. It’s unclear whether it will be too dark for anyone to see the landmark structures fall. There’s no designated area for spectators. And this time of year, the sun doesn’t rise until 7:43 a.m.
But certainly, anyone nearby should be able to hear and feel the explosives.
As a precaution, the police are closing off roads, to vehicles and pedestrians: Grosse Ile Parkway, Bellevue Road, West River, and West Jefferson starting at about 6:45 a.m. and lasting about two hours. No power outages, however, are expected.
Some residents, who have come to look for the candy-cane striped stacks as a landmark, from the sky, when they fly home from Florida, and the water, when they go fishing and boating, said they will miss them. Others expressed they would be glad to be rid of an eyesore in an otherwise picturesque place.
Either way, the power plant is going out with a bang.
DTE plans to demolish the rest of the nearly 100-year-old coal-fired power plant which was idled in 2022, on May 17, a date which still could change depending on the weather. After that, DTE said it intends to redevelop the property, not sell it.
The utility has not announced what it aims to build there, but it’s unlikely to look like the stacks.
Michiganders have long relied on coal for their electricity, but both the Detroit-based DTE and Jackson-based Consumers Energy have been generating power with natural gas and other sources to reduce carbon emissions and the effects of climate change.
DTE said in 2022 it was retiring the Trenton stacks, as well as a coal power plant in St. Clair, trumpeting it as a part of its wider effort to bring southeast Michigan closer to a carbon-free future with more affordable and reliable energy. At the time, the company said about a third of the electricity it generated was from carbon-free sources, including wind, solar and nuclear energy.
As for Friday’s demolition, DTE officials said the company already disposed of any toxic materials in compliance with state and federal regulations, and the disposal has been verified by a third-party, Michigan-licensed inspector, so there is no need to worry about breathing in hazardous dust.
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.
Read More: DTE’s Trenton stacks, almost 100 years old, set to go out with a bang