Frontier Group project will lead to new steel mill

The Buffalo, New York-based Frontier Group 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 online 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.

Earlier this month, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor announced it planned a new scrap-fed EAF steel sheet mill at the site along the Ohio River and the border with the Buckeye State.

Citing a company news release, WCHS says Frontier expects to complete its demolition work by the end of 2022.