Glencairn Tower falls (videos)

Last weekend Glencairn Tower in Motherwell was imploded by Technical Demolition Services in what looks to be a very clean takedown. Videos have now appeared of the event on YouTube, and we've selected a few of the best to include on the site.

The Tower demolition wasn't without its problems, the main one being a survey failing to identify asbestos throughout the structure. That took the costs well over a million pounds where as the original budget was just £703,400.

Las Gladiolas building implosion videos

As reported first by DemolitionNews, above and below is footage of the Las Gladiolas building complex being imploded in Puerto Rico. Three videos of the implosion have been uploaded to YouTube so far, all of which are included here.

According to Primerahora.com, the implosion used 3,000 pounds of explosives distributed across 8,900 holes in the middle and lower walls of the building. The complex had been standing since 1969 and previously housed 676 families.





Source: DemolitionNews

Stadium demolition in Brazil makes way for 2014 World Cup

The 2014 FIFA World Cup may still be 3 years away, but at least demolition fans are going to have some memorable moments in the run up to the tournament.

A World Cup of course means stadiums that can hold tens of thousands of people, and a spectacle for the world. So Brazil, the hosts in 2014, want to make sure they provide facilities that are worthy of the event. That means demolishing old buildings and stadiums to make way for new ones.

The video included below is just one example of this redevelopment. Of course, our friend Fabio Bruno is involved, and although details are scarce at the moment, it looks as though controlled implosions of the Castelão Stadium will be carried out. As you can see, having the rest of the stadium still standing helps to control the dust.



We look forward to seeing more of these World Cup 2014 implosions.

Water tower at RAF St Athan demolition

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.

The best of U.S. implosions in 2010

CNN has put together this compilation of implosions from around the U.S. in 2010. There's no waiting, just a couple of minutes and a lot of destruction - exactly how demolition videos should be.

Source: MediaITE.com

Welbeck Colliery Coal Storage Plant demolition (video)

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.

Lyondell-Basell building demolished

The video above shows the demolition of a Lyondell-Basell building in the 12000 block of Bay Area Blvd. To prepare, the crew covered the lower 3 floors with a steel link curtain before explosives were set.

Source: Khou.com

Found footage: Safedem implode Marmion, Heriot and Montrose Courts

With the amount of video footage uploaded to the web everyday (24 hours of video every minute according to Google), it's not surprising that some goes unnoticed. With that in mind, if we ever find some older videos of demolition we'll post it here as "found footage".

A good example of this is the 2004 implosion carried out by Safedem of the Marmion, Heriot & Montrose Courts in Scotland. There's a couple of videos showing the implosion below:





Here's the description taken from the YouTube page explaining the job and the process:

"These three 15 storey tower blocks had originally been tendered as a long reach demolition project. However having carefully examined the site, the programme, and the costs, explosives experts at Safedem were called in to explore the possibility of demolishing the structures by explosives.

Each of the three buildings had a restriction on at least one elevation. Nearby housing just 10m away, live roads and retaining walls just 5m away and live services and high voltage cables that looped around the blocks just 3m from the buildings in places.
The greatest concern was a live sub station located 2m from the west elevation of the centre building. Scottish Power's field engineer made one warning regarding the sub-station "...if you hit that, you cut off the supply to half of Paisley." A detailed risk assessment and cost comparison was carried out and with Safedem's assurance, the blocks were to be demolished b y explosives. There was a massive evacuation and security operation implemented for this project. Over 600 residents were evacuated from their homes which included intensive planning for the evacuation of the only remaining tower block- Oliphant Court.

Precisely on schedule on Sunday 12th December, 2004, the tower blocks were demolished with more than 3,000 strategically placed detonators controlling the direction and rate of collapse exactly as planned into the designed drop areas. The post blowdown inspection immediately focussed on the live sub station. The delays had done their job with no kickback whatsoever leaving a clear path between the substation and debris pile. Further inspection confirmed the other buildings behaved as anticipated and designed with the line of live underground services and the retaining wall free of debris and surcharge."

Another Fabio demolition, this time in Santa Cruz

Yesterday we got to see Fabio Bruno Pinto demolish a four storey building in Rio, Brazil. We wanted more and went searching for other Fabio jobs video footage had been captured for.

The video below is a job Fabio's company carried out in December last year. It's two buildings in Santa Cruz, Rio. We get to see a decent snapshot of the preparation work required before the implosion can take place and the main event happens.

In the end it's another impressive demolition job, and one planned using a simulation similar to that used on the Presidio Helio Gomes.

Four-storey build implosion this weekend in Brazil

As reported by Demolition News last month, our friend Fabio Bruno Pinto is carrying out a four-storey 3,700 square metre building implosion tomorrow in Brazil.

The original plan was for the BBC to fly out and film it with our very own John Woodward. Unfortunately the flight times were unworkable for John and that is no longer going to happen. The BBC is still going to be there, though, so we should get some great footage to watch.

Videos of the work will surely appear tomorrow afternoon, but for now check out this simulation of how the building is expected to come down:



Source: Demolition News

6 silos on Lafarge site, Northfleet imploded

Erith Group, with the help of our good friends Philip Lowe, and Dick Green of Independent Explosives Engineers Ltd., has imploded the 6 remaining silos at the Lafarge site in Northfleet.



Demolition News posted the video you see above of the implosion taking place.

Experience the Texas Stadium explosion interactively

This is one of the best demolition videos we have ever seen. Not because of what it shows, but because of what you can do.

Immersive Media managed to setup a HD virtual reality camera inside the recently demolished Texas stadium that filmed as the implosion happened.

The virtual reality aspect comes from the fact you can interact with the video and turn the view allowing you to watch the action however you want. Just place your mouse inside the video window, hold down the left mouse button, and start moving it around.

If you have trouble viewing the video here follow the link below for the original.

Source: Immersive Media

Rio's oldest prison implosion

Usually, when you see a building implosion video it contains just one building going up in smoke. But the video you see above has 8 of them all going down.

The site is in Rio and was the oldest prison in the region called Presidio Frei Caneca. It took a lot of planning, with computer simulations being carried out before the actual implosion.

Here's some more raw footage of the blast:



Source: Demolition News

This demolition was a tale of two halves

Clearly this building implosion somewhere in China was not planned that well. The building splits in two, with the desired result only happening to half the structure.