Safedem's Broomview House, Edinburgh demolition

C&D customer Safedem, who won the explosive demolition award at the Demolition Awards 2009, did so due to their work on the 12-storey Broomview House flats in Edinburgh.

The demolition proved to be quite complex and Demolition & Recycling International have a great review of the project. Here's an excerpt:

"The vertical columns that effectively carried the suspended floor slabs were only 200 x 500 mm (8 x 20 in) on plan, each with two vertical tendons housed within 100 mm (4 in) metal sheaths. This configuration prohibited standard drilling for explosives, so Safedem developed an innovative technique for the placement of light explosive charge weights required to disrupt the column and release the energy within the tendons at predetermined locations. This involved diamond saw cutting of vertical slots, positioned to avoid the prestressed tendons. The slots, 14 mm (0.6 in) wide and 106 mm (4.2 in) deep, allowed the 12 mm (0.5 in) diameter detonating cord to be centrally positioned within the column. Once in position, the slots were grouted to the column face in order to contain the cord and achieve maximum coupling and efficiency of the explosive charge."

You can read the whole article for yourself here. Highly recommended.