Friday will mark the next big step in tearing down the St. Johns River Power Park, which is on New Berlin Road off Heckscher Drive.
Weather permitting, the selective catalytic reactors at the plant will come tumbling down in an implosion.
No road closures are planned, but JEA warns that nearby residents and commuters may hear loud noises associated with the implosion.
There will be no public viewing areas set up for the implosion. However, JEA is providing a media staging area for local TV stations that wish to provide video coverage.
JEA said the city of Jacksonville's Emergency Planning Department is coordinating with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Jacksonville Fire and Rescue on an onsite command post.
The implosion will be directed by Total Wrecking & Environmental, LLC, which is the same company that managed the implosion of the plant’s cooling towers last year.
Video of Cooling Towers Implosion
Following Friday’s implosion, another implosion will be scheduled for the plant’s stack and boilers sometime this summer. JEA expects to finish decommissioning the St. Johns River Power Park at the end of June 2020.
Before being closed in January 2018, the coal-fired plant supplied 632,000 kilowatts to JEA's transmission grid.
JEA plans to put the plant’s land up for sale once the decommissioning is complete. JEA owns 80% of the facility with Florida Power and Light's owning the remaining 20%.
Bill Bortzfield can be reached at bbortzfield@wjct.org, 904-358-6349 or on Twitter at @BortzInJax.
