History Channel Documentary first 16-minute segment of the premiere of “Dangerous Demolition” on Saturday

EAST PEORIA — Anyone interested in watching the dramatic demolition from two years ago of a 175-foot, 100-year-old grain silo should tune into the History Channel this weekend. Anyone interested in seeing the end result of the demolition, a massive pile of concrete and steel, should visit the site at 402 Center St. in East Peoria. Most of the rubble is still there.
The documentary airs Saturday at noon. Check your local listings for the History Channel channel. It is the first 16-minute segment of the premiere of “Dangerous Demolition” an episode of the program “Project Impossible.” It features the death-defying work of Eric Kelly, the master demoliisher who “trips” buildings using only an excavator and his own nerves of rebar. Kelly runs Advanced Explosives Demolition out of Idaho and travels the world knocking stuff down.
“A 20-year (demolition) veteran watched the segment, and remarked that it was one of the more insane things he’s ever seen,” said Dylan Robertson, the executive producer of the program and an operator of one of the drones that filmed the silo takedown in November 2016. “It was an incredible experience.”
The program’s promotional video ends with the massive silo falling. “It produced a plume of dust and flying debris that nobody anticipated,” Robertson said from Los Angeles this week. “It was awesome.”
The program provides a brief history of the structure built during Peoria’s whiskey boom years, an account of the slowly unfolding demolition drama, an explanation of the technique and interviews with Kelly and one of his two spotters. It ends in a cloud of dust.