Latest Demolition and Recycling International Magazine Available

The January-February 2017 issue of Demolition and Recycling International magazine is now available to read for free.

Highlights of this issue include:

• ConExpo showguide
• Demolition excavators
• Mobile crushing

C&D Consultancy is mentioned twice in this issue, and more specifically, the Rosemount explosive demolition job is featured, which we collaborated on with Safedem.

You can download the PDF version directly, or get it for your Apple iOS or Google Android devices.

Roystonhill High Flats demolition video

Footage has emerged from a new angle of the successful blowdown of Rosemount Street by Safedem earlier this year. It's short, but sweet:

Scotland's tallest residential multi-storeys have been demolished

C&D Consultancy were recently confirmed as joint winners of the Collaboration in Demolition Award, and it was won due to the demolition of GHA's Whitevale and Bluevale flats in Glasgow’s Gallowgate. Also known as Scotland's tallest residential multi-storeys.

The contract was carried out by Safedem working with Despe and C&D. It used ‘TopDownWay’ technology, meaning full-height scaffolding was not required for the 31-storey buildings. Instead, a platform at the top of each building allows for a floor-by-floor demolition.

Commenting on the job, Safedem's managing director William Sinclair said:

"We carefully assess every project before developing the safest and most appropriate method of demolition. The ‘TopDownWay’ is an innovative system designed for the deconstruction of high-rise structures in close proximity to nearby properties.

This really has been a huge team effort to bring this new and exciting system to the UK and to the Gallowgate. We are delighted the exceptional teamwork on this project has resulted in winning the Collaboration Award."

Source: Scottish Construction Now!

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.

The World Demolition Awards will only have one Scottish contender: Safedem

You may remember back in September that we happily reported on C&D being shortlisted for an award at the World Demolition Awards in the category of "Collaboration in Demolition." It was due to our work with Safedem & DESPE at Whitevale & Bluevale Towers in Gallowgate, Glasgow.

Well, it turns out that the Dundee-based Safedem is the only Scottish contender at the awards. This has been highlighted by the Scottish Plant website, which also points out that the awards are "dominated by UK firms."

I'm sure Safedem will represent Scotland well, and could walk away with the prize on Friday!

C&D appointed CDM Co-ordinator for The Gallowgate Twins demolition

C&D are proud to announce that we have been appointed as CDM Co-ordinator and Demolition Consultants for the demolition of "The Gallowgate Twins," the tallest structures in Scotland. We will be working with Safedem and GHA on this complex demolition for the whole of 2015.

Further details about the demolition project can be found at the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-30485254

C&D customer Safedem is first UK demolition firm with Be Fair Accredition

We have to say congratulations to Safedem for managing to become the first demolition company in the UK to be awarded Be Fair Accredition. But what exactly does that mean?

The Be Fair Framework was created by the CITB, which is committed to promoting Equality and Diversity within the industry. The framework is an industry specific standard which provides a structure for employers to address fairness, inclusion and respect within their organisation. Benefits include:

• Creating an environment where employees feel valued and supported
• Creating an opportunity for an organisation to become a preferred employer and supplier of choice
• Helping an organisation achieve corporate social responsibility gains and promoting the business within communities
• Strengthening tender offers and helping win contractsIncreasing business benefits such as improving work-life balance for employees, reducing staff turnover, helping address skills shortages and attracting new recruits
• Promoting public recognition as a quality organisation.

Commenting on achieving accredition, Safedem managing director William Sinclair said:

"Be Fair Accreditation demonstrates fairness, inclusion and respect to all – values that everyone at Safedem endorse and can take pride in "

Source: NFDC

Safedem implodes 25-storey block of flats in Glasgow

Safedem has successfully completed the demolition of a 25-storey block of flats in Roystonhill, north Glasgow, which have been standing since 1968.

The implosion can be watched above and used 40kg of explosives to bring the block down in just 5 seconds. The clean up operation involving the removal of 10,000 tonnes of debris will be completed by the middle of 2014.

The demolition was greenlit by the Glasgow Housing Association, which has already invested £1.3 billion regenerating the area and housing across the entire city. In place of these flats 100 new homes will be built as well as around 300 more homes planned for the Sighthill and Barmulloch areas of the city.

Source: KHL

Safedem blast for Sanctuary Housing stops the traffic

Yesterday in Glasgow saw another tower block demolished and we at C&D were watching from a distance rather than being involved.

Safedem carried out the controlled explosive demolition of a tower at Anderston for Sanctuary Housing, a project where C&D have no involvement, and it's proximity to the M8 motorway meant that traffic was halted with a police rolling roadblock to allow the demolition to take place.

Initial reports from William Sinclair at Safedem tell us that the prompt evacuation of the surrounding properties allowed the blast to go ahead at the earliest of the proposed times,11.30 am, and the job was without incident.

Congratulations go to Safedem on another job well done as can be seen from the included photograph and the video clip here. There's also a great set of photographs covering the build up to the blast available on Facebook.

Safedem's new Liebherr High Reach gets to grips with Tayside House, Dundee

We are pleased to feature the video above, shot on the supervisor's mobile phone, of the new Safedem high reach machine at Tayside House.

Driver Paul Barlow is working his way down the block in this footage on this difficult demolition in the centre of Dundee. The contract is now complete and Paul and the machine have moved up to the St Nicholas House contract in Aberdeen.

Aberdeen City Council/Mott McDonald/Safedem St. Nicholas House Demolition

Aberdeen City Council awarded the demolition of St Nicholas House in the centre of Aberdeen to Safedem and appointed Mott McDonald as the client advisors. Safedem have launched a project specific website for the project which can be seen at http://stnicholasdemolition.co.uk/

More information about this project follows in the coming days.

C&D customer Safedem bring the house down at Dundee

Last Sunday saw C&D customer Safedem bring down two Dundee towerblocks in a controlled explosion that was doubly difficult in as much as, not only was there a church between the blocks that had to remain, but the blocks were constructed in a way not seen before by the Safedem blasting team of William & David Sinclair.

Media interest was great with the blast being shown live on Sky News and in reports on local tv and national BBC bulletins throughout the day.

Here at C&D we say a massive "Well Done" to all of the team involved on the day to complete a major, extremely difficult blowdown of unusually constructed blocks with no injuries to workforce or the general public. Yes there was minor cosmetic damage to the church, that will be repaired by the time you read this article, but that should not be seen as anything more than a minor incident in a superb job.


As well as the video footage above, we also have the post blast comment from William Sinclair as follows:-

There is a saying - save the best to last.

After almost 20 years of multi storey demolitions, Dundee City Council awarded their last two tower blocks to local company Safedem. Since 1995, Safedem have steadily changed the skyline of it's hometown demolishing over 40 tower blocks across the city in this period.

At 27 storeys the Derby Street blocks where built in an area surrounded by sandstone tenements with ornately carved date stones from the 1800's. However it was a relatively modern 1970's structure, St Martins church, that was located between the blocks that captured the medias attention.

Derby Street is located in the Hilltown area - aptly named as the sloping site saw the tower blocks built off a heavy duty podium structure that resembled the support legs from the nearby Tay bridge. The slope was such that at the east end of the structure the 850mm thick columns were 9metres tall - at the west end they were just 3 metres.

The internal floor plan of the structures was also highly unusual, with maisonette style homes spread over 3 floors, with the centre of the structure offset from the main living areas. The maisonettes , tall and narrow homes, where heavily reinforced concrete Walls divided the rooms every 2.75 metres. A total of 37 heavily reinforced cross Walls at any one level made this one of the most rigid tower blocks Safedem has ever encountered.

All these cross Walls needed drilled so each building had in excess of 5000 drill holes (a standard block is closer to 2500 holes), each drill hole housing an individual charge and delay detonator.

When assessing the structures and the nearby buildings to remain, it was obvious that each structure required it's own unique collapse mechanism. The north block needed to be initiated at the east end and directed to the east towards the nearby main road. The south block needed to come straight down and then rotate away from the church ensuring the debris came to rest away from St Martins towards a series of 4 storey buildings that form part of Safedems overall demolition project in the area.

Due to the proximity of the church a protective screen constructed of scaffold was erected at the gable of the church.

The evacuation of this heavily populated city centre location was carried out by Safedem s Community Liaison Team. Hundreds of residents were temporarily evacuated and catered for in the dedicated rest centre, ensuring the demolition could proceed within the target time window.

On initiation, and in front of thousands of onlookers, the two structures dropped as designed in a safe and controlled manner. On inspection of the church, part of the 14,000 tonnes of rubble from the north block had come to rest against the scaffold protection screen. The screen had ensured there was no structural damage to the church, although there was some minor damage to a fire escape area to the rear of the church building. The minor damage will be repaired in the next day or so.

Safedem Managing Director, William Sinclair commented,

" I was disappointed to see the minor damage at the church fire escape area because the standards we set ourselves are so high. However these were Dundees tallest structures and of a truly complex and rigid construction and I am delighted they are safely down having collapsed as designed.

This project required real team work from a number of agencies and real thanks must go to not just the hardworking Safedem team, but also to Dundee City Council and Police Scotland who worked with us every step of the way to deliver another safe and successful blowdown in Dundee."

Safedem's new Leibherr High Reach hard at work at Tayside House, Dundee

C&D customer Safedem are probably most well known for their superb explosive demolition projects such as Red Road, but they do carry out extensive demolition by machine throughout Scotland and into the UK, and this increase in machine demolition has seen William Sinclair invest a considerable amount of money in a new Leibherr High Reach machine.

The new machine has been put to work at Tayside House in Dundee to complete the demolition of the towerblock that was reduced to its current height by the use of traditional "Top Down" demolition over the last few months.

This footage shows the new machine working it's way down the block. Progress since this initial footage has been impressive and we expect that the next time we visit the site to carry out a scheduled site audit it will be well on the way to completion.

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.

Glasgow Housing Association select 3 demolition contractors

The Glasgow Housing Association has selected three demolition contractors to carry out major demolition work between now and 2017. The three contractors and the value of the work assigned to them is as follows:

• Safedem - £4.7 million
• Technical Demolition Services - £4.1 million
• Dem-Master - £1.1 million

Seven companies were in the running for the work, but the three that won already have proven track records working with the association.

The good news now is how much of a difference the contracted work will make to the Glasgow skyline. In total, many high rise flats will be demolished, over 2,000 flats will go, and a further 250 low rise flats are also earmarked for removal, ready for land redevelopment.

Source: Construction Enquirer

How Safedem and Brandis A/S blasted two tower blocks

On the 13th May this year two tower blocks in Copenhagen were imploded through a collaboration between Brandis A/S and Safedem. The EFEE Newsletter has a detailed and fascinating article on the work involved, the blast design, and the risks involved in the job.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

The two concrete buildings, 15 and 13 stories, 14,100 t and 16,500 t, were constructed in 1954 - 1956. Because of outdated design and high cost of renovation, the owner, AAB cooperative housing society, decided in 2006 to demolish the buildings and hired NIRAS for planning and management of the demolition work. The options for demolition: Blasting, crane and ball, long range concrete breaker, deconstruction from the top lifting elements by crane, and demolition from to top using small machines were assessed with respect to safety, environment protection, cost and time. The result of the assessment showed that the blasting solution was the safest and most advantageous method.

After tendering procedure the Danish demolition contractor Brandis A/S together with the Scottish blasting company Safedem won the contract.

The demolition work contract started in October 2011 with stripping the buildings and preparation for blasting, scheduled in May 2012...

You can download the EFEE Newsletter and read the full article as well as 16 pages of other content.

John Woodward to speak to Association of Project Safety Scottish Regional Meeting next week

John recently completed a Round the UK tour of speaking engagements for APS that was very well received and he has now been asked to return to the APS to speak to the Scotland East Region on Tuesday, 18th September.

The talk "Things that go bang in the night (..and in the day)" is about explosive demolition contracts north of the border carried out by Safedem, Coleman and Company and TDS/PDC, and will include video footage of the schemes where C&D have been involved and will show the teamwork required from all parties to achieve successful blowdowns.

The talk will take place at Rooms 3/07 & 3/08, Edinburgh Napier University, Craiglockhart Campus, Colinton Road, Edinburgh, EH14 1DJ between 18.00 and 20.00.

The regional APS meeting normally has 2 speakers at each occasion and it may be that John is the first to speak so we suggest that, if you are going, and we hope that you are, you get there for just before 18.00 for the tea and coffee.

Details of the talk can be found on the APS website.

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 appoint C&D as CDM-C for next phase of Red Road

C&D are delighted to announce that we continue to win business in these difficult times as we have been awarded a major CDM-C contract with one of our regular clients, Safedem, to assist them with the explosive demolition of their contract to demolish the Red Road flats in Glasgow.

Following the success of the first blowdown earlier this month, Safedem approached C&D to tender for the work on the second phase of this prestigious contract and C&D are delighted to have been successful in being awarded the role as CDM-C.

This appointment for the next phase of six of the high rise blocks will see C&D involved at Red Road for the next five years and continues the working relationship with Safedem North of the Border.

This latest Scottish contract award sees C&D now involved in over 20 major tower block demolitions in Scotland from now until 2017 and means that the search for a Glasgow office will commence in July.

The CDM-C work will be led by John Woodward with assistance from the whole of the C&D team.

Safedem Limited Red Road, Glasgow tower block explosive demolition

If you visited this site on Friday you will know that we advised that the Safedem implosion of Red Road would probably not be as pretty as previous Safedem blowdowns, that video would show debris ejecting from the tower during the demolition and that the resultant debris pile would not be as tidy as normally expected from a Safedem project.

What we actually said was:-

“Following the detonation we fully anticipate that there may be a perception, to the untrained eye, that the operation has not gone to plan as the resultant pile of debris will not be as neat and tidy as previous blasts from Safedem and will, most probably, resemble a game of “pick up sticks” as the steel will not, of course, disintegrate during the blast.”

We are pleased to say that the blast went very well and the building reacted as expected by Safedem. Debris was ejected from the building, as can be seen on the YouTube footage, but that is mainly the remains of the 8000 sand bags used as blast protection around the charging points. The columns were all tied back using steel ropes and the ropes did the trick.

The resultant debris pile is higher than normal from a blowdown and can be clearly seen at the Safedem website set up for this project at http://www.redroaddemolition.co.uk/





It goes without saying that congratulations go to all on the team, client GHA, Safedem, all consultants and everyone involved with the project as Safedem now hold the record for the tallest tower block ever imploded in the UK, beating the record previously held by Controlled Demolition Group for 240, Roystonhill, Glasgow at 25 storeys.

The Red Road blast was 28 storeys!

WELL DONE!