New Haven Independent

After an 18-month delay, the moment has come: The last remaining 48,000 tons of steel and concrete will fall to their death bed of earthen mounds and tires on Saturday at 7:30 a.m.

The main viewing place, if you don’t have spot in a private apartment tower, will be the Temple Street Garage. Free parking opens at 5 a.m. A band will play at 6:15 a.m. If you arrive (in a car) after 6:15 a.m., you will only be able to access the garage in this way: Take Temple Street to Crown Street, then turn left on Crown. Viewers “” officials expect droves “” can enjoy free hot chocolate on the upper level, where the mayor will be.

Residents in nearby apartment buildings “” Trader’s Block Condos, Liberty Safe Haven Apartments, and a portion of the Residences at 9th Square “” will be evacuated from 6:30 a.m. until 9:30 a.m., or whenever the street is clear.

A team of 90 cops and firefighters will close the immediate area to pedestrians at 6:30 a.m., when a Safety Zone will be cordoned off. The safety perimeter extends from the edge of the Temple Street Garage to Union Avenue, which is east of the Knights of Columbus Museum, and from Crown Street to South Frontage Street. Route 34 and I-95 will be closed briefly at 7:30 a.m. to prevent drivers from being “distracted,” said Mayor John DeStefano, Jr.

“Tomorrow, we’re going to bring to a close 33 years of the city’s history,” he said at a press conference Friday at the Knights of Columbus headquarters. “It was an important part of our landscape,” but now “it’s time to let an old friend go.”

Then DeStefano needled the two Guilford kiddies tasked with the big implosion.

At 7:30 a.m., the kids in the photo at the top of this story, Guilford natives Ben, 10 and Tori, 8 Staniewicz, will push a plunger. They were chosen because their dad won a raffle donating food to the Connecticut Food Bank. They’ve been to The Coliseum once, to see the circus.

Can you guarantee it will come down? asked the mayor. “Probably,” replied Ben.

If all goes as expected, the plunger will prompt a Pop! Pop! Pop! as 12,000 shots of dynamite, stuck into holes bored into columns, will ignite, according to Stephen Goldblum, chief operating officer of Stamford Wrecking, which is overseeing the demolition. The Coliseum’s upper structure, a 2,400-space parking garage, will fall in “a wave” as the columns are blown up, east to west. The fall should take six to 15 seconds, he said.

Brief intense winds of 80 to 90 mph should blow “directly away from” the site. Viewers in the immediate area should feel “some vibration, but it’s not going to be like a horror movie.” Will there be clouds of debris and dust? Most of the remaining structure’s made of concrete and steel, said Goldblum. He expected “relatively minimal dust which should dissipate quickly.”

Tonight, police dogs will sniff through the premises to make sure no one’s sleeping there, or hiding out, hoping to go down with the Coliseum…

To read more safety info, click here or here for City Hall’s releases.

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