Leaning tower of Bathurst: Efforts to tear down concrete silo fail

A concrete silo in Bathurst that was supposed to have been torn down and cleaned up long ago is now leaning like an abandoned, half-cut tree.

Bathurst residents aren't happy about the silo, and want the unsightly reminder of the Smurfit-Stonepaper mill, which suddenly stopped operating a dozen years ago, to disappear from the landscape.

Raymond Robichaud, who boughtthe former mill site where the silo sits in 2016, said efforts to drop the structure Thursday afternoon did not happen because the notch put in the bottom wasn't long enough.

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After a WorkSafeNB visit Friday morning, "we had to come up with a different plan," Robichaud said.

Efforts to finally bring the silo to the ground, which include cutting the rebar around the base to topple it, were expected to resume Friday afternoon.

It's the moment many have been waiting for since the paper mill unexpectedly ceased operations in 2005, putting hundreds out of work.

A cleanup companybought the property five years later but abandoned it because contractors had stripped the property of valuable materials and equipment, leavingit "looking like a war zone," according to some residents.

The company, Bathurst Redevelopment Inc.,was fined a "symbolic sum" of $150,000 for breaching a ministerial order to clean up the property to standards set by the Department of Environment and Local Government.

Everyone ishappy to see the silos go, Robichaud said.

"They've been looking at these towers since 2005. Every time you go by, you think Smurfit-Stone, and they want them gone."