2019 Demolition of Somerset Cooling Towers Set a Record

Do you remember when the Brayton Point Power Station's cooling towers came tumbling down on April 27, 2019? I watched it happen from the west-facing balcony off Mayor Jasiel Correia's office at Fall River Government Center.

Before I came to work for WBSM in 2016, my office was in Somerset with a clear view of the Brayton Point Power Station. It was amazing to watch the construction of those towers.

Once the base of each of the two five hundred-foot towers was complete, ramps encircling the towers enabled trucks to climb higher and higher so crews could make them taller and taller.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered the towers constructed to cool water used in the energy-making process before it could be released back into Mount Hope Bay. The decision came following years of litigation by environmental groups led by Save the Bay.

It took four years and $600 million to construct the twin towers. They lasted four years before the power company went out of business and demolished the concrete towers.

Not many were sad to see the giant towers crumble. They were eyesores to many town residents who worried about the impact on property values.

It is said that you could see the cooling towers from the International Space Station, but having never been to space, I can't independently confirm that. I know you could see them from as far away as Newport.

Here is something I didn't know. The Providence Journal reported at the time, that the "demolition set a world record for the tallest cooling towers ever brought down."