Demolition, Scrap Metals

Frontier Group project will lead to new steel mill

The Frontier Group, headquartered in Buffalo, New York, has started demolition work in Mason County, West Virginia, to dismantle an idled power plant to make way for an electric arc furnace (EAF) steel mill to be built by Nucor Corp.

The Frontier Group describes itself as offering several services tied to “large-scale industrial and commercial facility reuse, repurposing and redevelopment.” Several of those services—including demolition, dismantling, asset recovery, brownfield redevelopment and real estate development—likely will come into play in the West Virginia project.

An article from WCHS-TV of Charleston, West Virginia, says Frontier has started demolishing the former Philip Sporn Power Plant, a coal-fired plant formerly owned by American Electric Power. Initial work included safely dropping a boiler in mid-January, according to the TV station.

Frontier acquired the 280-acre Sporn site in Mason County for redevelopment purposes in 2019, according to WCHS, four years after the utility idled the plant.

In mid-January, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor announced its plans to construct a new scrap-fed EAF steel sheet mill at the site, which is located along the Ohio River, bordering the Buckeye State.

WCHS reports that a boiler at the site was dropped in late January. According to a news release issued by Frontier, the company expects to complete its demolition work by the end of 2022.