Long-awaited mill demo project finally begins on River St.
WOONSOCKET – After years of hoping and planning, the city finally began demolishing sections of the former Dorado Mill Complex at 719 River St. on Wednesday.
City Director of Planning and Development Michael Debroisse said the project began slowly as all the initial hazards were removed but once the city’s demolition contractor, AA Wrecking, got into the long shuttered mill itself, the wrecking moved more quickly.
For now, the company is pulling apart the newer manufacturing structure to the northern side of the complex along the Blackstone and will be carting out more of the materials as time goes on, according to Debroisse.
“Right now we want to get everything down,” Debroisse said of the ongoing work.
The city had to wait initially while AAA Asbestos Abatement Co. of Johnston removed any hazardous materials from the complex buildings but that had all been completed by this week, Debroisse noted.
The original mill at the site had been built as the Perseverance Worsted Company, one of approximately 200 textile mills once operating along the Blackstone in Woonsocket, and later became the Quincy Dye Co. and Seville Dye while manufacturing several
types of upholstery-related products.
The Dorado company was its final operator before it remained shutdown and unused for many years.
Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt welcomed the start of demolition of the complex on Friday while pointing to the work as a opportunity to revitalize a long neglected section of the waterfront property in the city.
“This is something that my administration has been working on for years,” Baldelli-Hunt noted.
“It was an area of blighted and contaminated property and the whole leadership staff here at city hall began working to get grants from the EPA