TAMPA -- The skyline at the south end of Tampa Bay will change a lot in the next few months. Tampa Electric says it's removing two of its three stacks at Big Bend Power Station near Apollo Beach as part of a modernization project.
But you won't see them go out in a dramatic implosion.
Jacobs says the 500-foot high chimneys will be dismantled in pieces by a special team, working its way from the top down. Demolition with explosives is not an option because the power plant will continue operating, Jacobs says. The stacks are made with an inner brick layer surrounded by a shell of poured reinforced concrete.
The stacks were built in the 1970s. They served three coal-fired units at Big Bend for a half-century. Another stack was removed in 2016.
Two of the units that used the chimneys, Units 2 and 3, have been or are being retired. Unit 1 is being converted to natural gas. Unit 4, which can use gas or coal, will continue in service, using the remaining stack.
Jacobs says Tampa Electric hopes to recover ten percent of the costs of the project by recycling metals and components. After the project is finished, Tampa Electric will generate 85 percent of power with natural gas, 10 percent with solar, and five percent with coal, according to Jacobs.
Listen to an interview with Cherie Jacobs below.
Photo: Tampa Electric