Watch Safedem strip a block of Red Road flats

Red Road is seen as Safedem's most challenging project to date. This is due in no small part to the steel frame construction they used combined with their height and scale. On top of that they contained a large amount of asbestos.

It was a massive job, and one that required working closely with the HSE to ensure complete safety throughout. But they succeeded, and this video is testament to how well they performed.

You can read more about the demolition on Safedem's website.

Second tower in the series of Red Road demolitions successfully completed by Safedem Limited

On Sunday, just before noon, saw the second of the iconic Red Road, Glasgow towerblocks successfully demolished by Safedem Limited using explosive demolition.

The demolition of one of the "point blocks" came after several months work for Safedem in removing asbestos materials and preparing the 32 storey steel framed block for demolition and several months work for the C&D CDMC team of John Woodward & Craig Wilkinson.

William Sinclair MD of Safedem and lead explosives engineer was joined on this blast by his father David Sinclair who flew over from the USA to assist with the preperation work and charging up. The blast on Sunday came after a very early start for the team (including John & Craig) to establish the exclusion zone, set up the blast control centre and evacuate several hundred residents from their homes before the blast could go ahead.

The blast design for this block was different in as much as the block was smaller in length but considerably "fatter" than the slab block demolished in July 2012 and, as such, the collapse mechanism could not be the same.

We have included footage of yesterday's blast above and you can compare it to the film shot by the One Show in July. Mark Anthony of DemolitionNews has also captured some stunning shots, which are available to view on fotopedia.

Red Road Flats feature on The One Show

We've covered the demolition of the Red Road flats in Glasgow a few times over the past year, and now the BBC's The One Show decided to pick up on the iconic flats.

Talking with Safedem's William Sinclair, he explains how complicated a job it actually is due to the steel structure of the building. We also learn how two types of explosives are used for such a structure.

The Red Roads flats coverage starts at the 20 minute mark with the video available to watch via the BBC iPlayer.

Safedem prepare Red Road flats for demolition (video)

C&D Customer Safedem Limited are currently preparing the Red Road flats in Glasgow for demolition and Glasgow Housing Association have allowed a local artist to produce a short film documenting the story o fthe Bingo Hall that used to be in the flats.

Unfortunately, we can't include the video as embedding has been disabled. However, you can watch it by visiting stv's website.

Blue Peter films with Safedem in Glasgow

If you want to watch Safedem's demolition of the Red Road Flats in Glasgow then you'll need to tune into children's television. The BBC's Blue Peter is filming the whole process.

Safedem has its own child safety campaign called SafeKIDS and Blue Peter has picked up on this. Presenter Helen Skelton has been visiting the site in Glasgow, doing a few courses, and performing a few tests. The aim is to raise awareness among kids about the dangers of demolition sites.

This is good news for Safedem and the demolition industry in general. Blue Peter will be visiting the site regularly and giving it time on Blue Peter right up until the blowdown next year. After that a special report will be aired on the show.

If all things go to plan there will be a few Blue Peter badges being handed out to the Safedem crew.

Source: Demolition News

Safedem to bring down Glasgow towers simultaneously

Safedem Ltd., which already had the contract for one block of flats at Red Road in Glasgow, has now secured the contract for the other block.

Being in charge of demolition for both blocks now has Safedem looking into a simultaneous demolition. Such a move will save local residence a number of headaches as road and rail closures will only have to be implemented once.

Safedem Managing Director William Sinclair said:

"We have been working with GHA and the local community for just over a year now and have carried out continual reviews to minimise the impact of our operations upon local residents and businesses.

Now that we are involved with the demolition of this next building, it didn't make sense to go ahead and demolish the first building then, a few months later, demolish the next building.

It does, however, make sense to have one blowdown demolition operation bringing both buildings down at the same time to minimise the impact on the community.

It means there will be less upheaval having only one evacuation for local residents and businesses instead of two."

The blowdown is expected to take place next year. As soon as we know the date we'll pass it along in case you want to be present on the day.

Source: 24dash.com via Demolition News

Red Road flats demolition sees C&D involvement

The eight Red Road flats in Glasgow are to be demolished, but not before Glasgow Museum gathers information about each one from people who have lived there.

The first one will be demolished in the Spring and C&D are proud to be a part of the operation. Safedem has appointed C&D Consultancy as Demolition Consultants for the first block which will be taken down by explosives.

This is a big project for Glasgow with the skyline set to change when all eight towers are gone. There is sure to be a lot of coverage and video footage captured as each building is raised to the ground. If it becomes available to share we will include it here on the site.

Glasgow Red Road Estate Flats

We were sent this image which features as part of a photo exhibition about life on Glasgow's Red Road Estate.

Currently C&D Consultancy is working with Safedem on the demolition of the Red Road Flats which once dominated the Glasgow skyline. As the Safedem website explains:

The Red Road flats are iconic for a number of reasons. The multi-storey buildings comprise of between 28-32 floors, are of steel frame construction and have an extremely high level of asbestos containing materials both internally and externally. The Red Road buildings were the largest in Europe at the time of construction in the early 1960's, and remained the largest only until fairly recently.