The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh have just opened The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee White Water Course. The gates were setup to open with a bang, and guess who was on hand to set the charges.
Old friends Dick Green of Index and SES jointly made the crowds day as they blew open the doors to the new course with the button pushed by HRH. What followed was 90,000 gallons of water pouring down the course.
The course will now be put to good use in the run up and during the Olympics, and hopefully will continue to be popular for years to come training our next set of professional sportsmen.
DEMEX carried out the implosion of Chantry Tower demolition, Jordanthorpe, Sheffield a few days ago. They employed SES specialist explosive services and IndEx independent explosives engineers as the collapse designers and blaster.
IndEx's Dick Green had the following to say about the blast:
"The building was 6m from a 3 storey residential care home at the rear and roads on two sides. The 15 storey structure was brought down precisely as predicted with no damage using 25 kg of explosives spread over 600 individual charges.
Before the countdown a few words were said over the radio to commemorate Phil Lowe one of our team members and a master blaster who sadly passed away last month, Phil contributed greatly to the success of this demolition.
Phil had a ritual of urinating on a structure just prior to its demolition for good luck, with the weather conditions throughout the day I think he is continuing that practice."
Dick Green has just completed his latest explosive demolition, this time at RAF St Athan in South Wales. The building was an old water tower and involved both IndEx and SES.
The tower was in a tight location with buildings on all 4 sides in close proximity. 2 side buildings were less than 10m away, and a pump and tank were 8m to the rear. Closest of all was a cast water main just 1m from the front of the building.
In order to get a vertical collapse they used 10kg of explosives placed in 250 holes. The end result was a perfect takedown with no damage caused to the surrounding structures.
Dick Green has sent along some footage of an implosion at Wellbeck colliery carried out late last week.
The implosion included a rapid load bunker, some conveyors and a lighting tower. The work was carried out for Ron Hull Group by IndEx, SES and RW Clarke.
Dick Green has been kind enough to share another video with us. This time it's of the Coal Storage Plant at Welbeck Collery.
It was carried out for Ron Hull Demolition and UK Coal using 15KG of explosives. Dick says he'll be back in the new year for the Rapid Loading Bunker and the Headstocks.
This is the Hellingly Asylum Hospital Water tower demolition (contained 3 big steel water tanks, IndEx and SES did with Cuddys yesterday. 35kg explosives steel plate protection and next to live hospital.
Hellingly Hospital was a large mental hospital in the village of Hellingly, east of Hailsham, in East Sussex, England. The hospital, also known as East Sussex County Asylum or just Hellingly, was opened in 1903. Its architect was GT Hine, one of the great asylum architects of the era.
The hospital boasted its own railway line, the Hellingly Hospital Railway, used principally for transport of coal. This branch line led from the main line to the boilerhouse. The hospital also had a vast laundry, ball room, patients' shop, sewing rooms, nurses home, extensive grounds, and an advanced utilities network for its time, including a large boilerhouse and a water tower. It followed the compact arrow plan for the main hospital, with separate villas surrounding this.
The majority of the hospital closed throughout 1994, however, and to this day much of the 25.4 hectare site stands derelict and extremely run down, after suffering repeated vandalism and multiple arson attacks. (Now being developed by Persimmons homes).
Dick Green also sent us a selection of photos we've combined into a video sequence of the event. Thanks to John Fox for allowing the photos to be used.
Dick Green has been kind enough to send us video footage of the blast carried out at the Buxton Steelworks last Wednesday. It was a job for Ron Hull Group done by Specialist Explosive Services and IndEx.
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