General

Ottawa’s Sir John Carling Building is brought down by explosive demolition. Advanced Explosive Demolition (AED) has imploded the former home of Agriculture Canada. The biggest blast in Ottawa’s history was over in seconds on Sunday, reducing the 11-storey John Carling Building to 40,000 tonnes of rubble by 420 kilograms of explosives. Hundreds of people gathered…Read moreRead more

Operator has lucky escape as silo demolition goes awry. It is probably the best part of 20 years since a wrecking ball was last swung in anger on a UK demolition site. And yet the media still refer to demolition in wrecking ball terms. The other media-favoured cliche is that “the dozers moved in”. Once…Read moreRead more

OSHA comes down hard on contractor that failed to protect workers from falls. Workers demolishing a three-unit, three-story residential building in Brooklyn’s Prospect-Lefferts Gardens section were exposed to potentially fatal falls due to their employer’s failure to provide and ensure the use of lifesaving fall protection. As a result, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational…Read moreRead more

NFDC’s decision to make site audit visits unannounced marks a giant leap forward. The evolution of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors’ Accredited Site Audit Scheme (ASAS) has not been a smooth ride; and it has required the intervention of some bold and belligerent NFDC presidents to bring its lofty ideals to fruition. Former president…Read moreRead more

CDI ready to drop part of Innerbelt Bridge. The Ohio Department of Transportation and Trumbull-Great Lakes-Ruhlin say a controlled explosive demolition of the steel skeleton of the 1959 Innerbelt Bridge will take place at first light on Saturday morning July 12. Controlled demolition will drop five of the nine steel spans of the old bridge….Read moreRead more

What do you do when a bridge demolition goes awry? Roll it up and move on! The recent demolition of a 100-year old steel bridge in Alberta, Canada did not go according to plan, leaving the demolition crew with an enormous clean-up operation to tackle. But with some deft excavator work, this operator is slowly…Read moreRead more

Time-lapse film captures demolition of Colorado hospital. If you enjoy high definition demolition films, you’re going to love this. The crew responsible for demolishing St Anthony’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado set in place a time-lapse system to take a photo every three minutes for the duration of the contract. The result is as mesmerising as…Read moreRead more

Two videos from the Hillhead exhibition highlight diversity of equipment. To anyone that has ever been to the Hillhead exhibition in Buxton, the name Hillhead traditionally conjures images of huge excavators and equally huge dumptrucks. But as the exhibition has embraced recycling and – increasingly – demolition equipment, the equipment has become ever more diverse….Read moreRead more

Australia’s one-time tallest structure set to fall. The decommissioned Omega tower navigation facility at Darriman will be dismantled, subject to heritage restrictions. Gippsland MHR and Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Darren Chester said the tower Australia’s tallest was now surplus to Defence requirements. “I’ve been told that Defence is currently assessing the heritage value of the…Read moreRead more

Conservationists claim victory in battle over Moscow landmark. The conservationist group Arkhnadzor on Wednesday announced that the planned demolition of Moscow’s iconic 160 metre tall Shukhov Tower had been cancelled, though the Communications and Mass Media Ministry warned it could still be slated for demolition in the future. “We’re not flat-out rejecting the idea of…Read moreRead more