"I know people like to see the ice coming down the river and over the Falls, butthat won't happen until later this week," said Lou Paonessa with the New York Power Authority.
The International Joint Commission and Niagara Border Control set the standards ofwhen the boom should come out. It's either April 1st or when there is less than 250 square milesof ice in the eastern end of the lake. There is currently less than 250 miles of ice.
The removal process involves taking the spans off the lake and temporarily storing them at the breakwall. From there, they are all towed to a storage location on Hamburg Street.
Paonessa said they need to shore up the breakwall before any of that happens.
"Right now there are some connection point problems along the breakwall. We're going to be fixing that today and tomorrow, so spans won't be removed from the lake until later in the week."
The ice boom is installed to reduce large chunks of ice from coming down the river which can cause jams impacting power production and shoreline damage and flooding.
February 28 is the earliest the ice boom has been removed. May 3rd is the latest.
Crews will first shore up breakwall before removing ice boom pontoons
