Extreme Demolitions: Tearing Down Everything | Full Series | FD Engineering

all around the world there are buildings and structures in desperate need of demolition the bridge was designed in the 30s so the bridge had served this useful life I'm Brendan Moore self-confessed demolition junkie in this series I scour the globe in Hunt of the biggest but most dangerous there really aren't too many safe ways of doing it and most spectacular demolitions I can find my mission to reveal the inner workings behind the art of demolition to meet the experts making a building down of that height has to be done carefully and the Machinery capable of leveling anything in their way a lot of science it goes into it it's not just like the match in the whole years and wait for the Boom [Music] so it flew in 16 and a half thousand kilometers from Sydney Australia to Manchester and it has not disappointed given that it has the reputation of being one of the wettest cities in Britain located in the northwest of England Manchester is also one of Britain's larger cities is home to one of the world's most popular football teams the 36 mile long Manchester ship canal and a thriving University steeped in history originally built in the 19th century the University's older buildings are quite magnificent some of its new structures though are due for an upgrade like this ugly great monster of a bridge that's great news for demolition diehards like me whenever there's some serious building bashing to do I'm gonna be there so I've traveled halfway around the world to see this giant concrete eyesore reduced to a pile of rubble built in the 1970s to connect the university with the business school next door this unusually wide structure is more than just a walkway containing shops and restaurants too Now 46 years on the shops have been emptied and this concrete Colossus has finally had its day and as I always say what goes up must come down 36 meters long and 21 meters wide this bridge is a 6 000 ton monster keeping this Behemoth up requires some intense reinforcement running through the bridge are 38 concrete beams kept in place by thousands of meters of Highly pressurized steel tension cable the structure is essentially a wire suspension bridge coated in concrete it was built to hold up more than double its own weight that means 120 000 people could gather on top of it and it wouldn't budge a bridge with that sort of strength isn't going to come down without a fight this is one of the trickiest and potentially most disastrous demolitions I've set my eyes on the bridges wedge between two buildings including the precinct library to make matters worse this is one of the busiest commuter rooms in Europe because of this explosives aren't an option and the risk of bringing down half the street is very real the only way you're going to get something like that on the ground is by having brains some big machinery and a solid plant and the man with the plan on this job is Paul Johnson a demolition veteran of over 30 years if anyone can get this bridge on the ground quickly it's him and his men even for a quick demolition team like this it's going to be a difficult job one full of massive risks [Music] it's still dark outside but the team starts work at first light and then making last minute preparations nearby so keep this really simple for me how is that bridge coming down tomorrow how are you going to do it a stick station tournament concrete sandwich in between a death Center shops and the University Library what we've got to do this job is 350 ton excavators fitted with concrete pork Rises very specialized equipment you've got a 55 ton excavator with a seven ton pulverizer like a giant pearl of concrete scissors and we're going to Crunch it down this extremely treacherous demolition has three main phases phase one start crushing the beams that support the bridge there's no turning back once this is underway and from here on in Anything Could Happen phase two and this is by far the riskiest remove the supports that attach the bridge to the buildings either side any mistakes made here and the University's Library could end up as a pile of rubble on the street phase three the make or break moment when we smash through the remaining beams and pray they come down without dragging anything else with them if it goes wrong it could Spell catastrophe for us all project manager Nick Parkinson is acutely aware of the dangers they face we have to be really careful because these Bridge beams touch buildings either side of the road we need to make sure that we take down the concrete roof and the bridge beams and make sure we get it down into the road without disturbing the buildings either side all three phases without causing serious damage and get the road open again is No mean feat and they don't have much time how long do you think it's going to take to get this down we're hopeful we'll get it down in 15 hours I think he's been a bit optimistic I think it's more likely to be an hour at every beam because we've got bits of Steel to take out above we've got the roof to take in and we've got the sides of the diaphragm being to tidy up I think we'll be finished Sunday Lunchtime with the bridge holiday okay next really one thing I've got gravity on my side Paul's schedule is ambitious but if 10 months of extensive planning is to pay off then the first few hours are going to be critical at 6 30 in the morning half an hour in and already we're starting to see that progress like two concrete munching brontosaurus we've got machines eating into the bridge from both sides by Sunset we're going to see all of that bridge down on the ground or so they think I'm going to go see Paul and Nick and see how they're getting on good morning Nick ready this weather's a bit better this morning a lot better this morning yeah okay are we exactly where we need to be at this point we're setting up about half an hour later than we wanted to start off but um things go things go well yeah so what are we doing right now well we got um one machine with the uh the cruncher pulling pieces off pulling the cold feet off the Pekka pecking at the beam and making holes in the beef to try and de-stress the beam the concrete just Falls away we're just going to be left with the steel and that'll sag down so you're effectively taking the meat off the skeleton and the skeleton is then too weak to support itself yeah absolutely phase one is in full swing the utterly named mancha and Hammer are a monstrous mechanical tag team ripping a bridge like this apart requires a combination of incredible force and uncompromising precision how quickly do you need to get through each one of those beams to stay on track Ball's gonna be right he's gonna be finished today the uh he needs to do one every half an hour so but I I think you know pulverizing concrete on this scale creates a big problem for the team on the ground dust to keep us all from choking on it the bridge needs to be constantly doused with water it makes an already difficult job much harder and much more dangerous [Music] the team worked hard to stay on schedule and protect the surrounding structures but they soon hit their first major challenge these concrete beans stretched the full capacity of it that relieves the tension of it otherwise [Music] the cables are the backbone of the bridge taking the weight of all 6000 tons cut under tension all pressure held on the steel would be released at once whipping the cables out with Incredible Force we've got one end we don't believe in that tension it looks cool right for the next few minutes the success of the whole project relies on the Steady Hand of the expert cutters [Music] [Music] when seven and a half tons the machine weighs six and five tools [Music] the tension begins to come out of the cables but we must make sure we don't come too early if a Cable's cut while still torque it'll blast out of the bridge showering us all with huge lumps of concrete thank you [Music] that one came off perfect though it's taken much longer than expected but it's a relief to have got through the first Bing's tension cables you're gonna have to pick up the pace if they're to get back on schedule though and the biggest nightmares of this job are still to come as they push forward I'm optimate the Man tasked with filling the hole we're going to leave behind once this bridge is confined to history James berkin is the University's architect so what's it going to look like amazing of course it is the project as a whole is the Redevelopment of the Manchester business school which is part of the University the building's gonna look a lot different from what it is now the bridge is as it currently stands prior to demolition it's quite quite a dark um uneventful space and quite quite intimidating really we want to drive this building forward and we want to push the vision forward of the aspirations of the business school and the University it really is a new gateway to the Oxford Road Corridor down to the university and even those in the business of new builds appreciate the beauty of a top-class demolition it's a complicated structure that's there and it as we can see is quite well made it puts up a lot of resistance to the Machinery that's there trying to break through it oh you can't just go into a piece of structure and snip at it or crunch it away or knock it down because it will always have a consequence on the remaining structure that say all the environment around it so there's quite a lot of respect for the demolition team they're under a lot of pressure to get it demolished on time I'm back on site and the guys are still tearing through the bridge as things have moved on you know we know how the other beings are reacting now and the labs are sped up so how many beams in are we we've done 10 beams on this side and we're just a little bit further behind on the other side with seven beams this means we're fast approaching phase two removing the diaphragm beams and praying that we don't take a few Librarians with us into those diaphragm beams weighs 500 tons and he makes sure that you don't do any damage to those buildings two diaphragm beams 14. these door pulling in lateral pressure on you freeze them the diaphragm beams connect the bridge to the buildings on either side these have to be removed before the remaining Central beams are pulled down else they could collapse too soon pulling the buildings down with them before the team tackled this critical part of the job Paul calls a breaking proceedings so they can plan their next steps carefully it looks more like a war zone than a university around here now just the way we demolition junkies like it after 12 hours there's so much noise and so much carry-on and so much dust beautiful to have this quiet and you know what just counting through the beams they've done pretty well they started with 36 beams they're now down to six left that calculates after 12 hours that's pretty much one beam every 25 minutes that means that those six beams should come down in the next three hours twelve past three is fifteen fifteen hours is precisely what Paul said it was going to come down in but he's still got the side beams running down the side the time for talking over the team will nervously back onto the site how important is it you keep the focus now we've all got to keep our Focus two guys driving these machines in a rubber they're excellent guys first Walkers this is a big responsibility it's not for the fantastic the machine operators have to detach the diaphragm beams from above any sideways pressure could cause the collapse of the wall they're attached to I can feel the tension around the sight it's hard to watch this could go by the way one beam down one to go but there's a problem the second one's not budget it's been severed from the rest of the bridge but hasn't collapsed if in some way it's still attached to the building and fell uncontrollably then we could end up demolishing more than we bargained for it looks like the hammer is going to need a helping hand here we go beautiful work textbook looked to me like there was a lot happening very quickly there was a lot happening very quickly yeah we've come to the critical phase of the job okay not done any damage it was time yet did they come off just as you wanted them to absolutely perfect perfect oh it's going to be a difficult job you're pulling a lump off that weighs 125 tons absolutely perfect let's go and have a look at this beam look at the size of these Brendan 910 South steal these room depression like that they were keeping those Bridge beams tied that's what held the bridge up not much of a bridge there though is it so far so good the buildings are still standing one man who hopes they'll remain that way is Peter Huxley who works in the Bookshop located right underneath the bridge what's it like for you today seeing this bridge come down it's going to be a huge Improvement it's been pretty pretty gray under that bridge I can tell you our front door's under the bridge and it's a pretty miserable place it was a bit of a monstrosity and I I it's gonna look a lot better without it on Monday morning if it's a sunny day it's going to be a shock to the system for us yeah it's going to look very very different the mystery was how they were gonna do it there were stories that were going to blow it up you know they were going to take it away section by section and here we can see that just smashing it to pieces that seems to be the answer smashing into pieces do you know what a detailed plan this is these guys from this position it looks like smashing it to Pieces today if only it were that simple but if Peter's bookstore is still going to be there on Monday this Wrecking Crew need to stick to the plan diaphragm being destroyed we're moving into phase three nerves of Steel required now the last few beams need to be removed which could spell the end of the job or if they're in any way supporting the buildings either side it could spell disaster it's ten past that on day one we're losing the light and we are that close from our breakthrough moment for the first time you can really see those four machines coming together they're two things away and man it has been so much work and I think everyone's getting a little bit tired and cannot wait for this moment [Music] with the light fading fast and the clock ticking no one knows of pulling down these last few beams might trigger the complete collapse of everything around us two beams quickly become one and as they chip away at the final piece of this incredible demolition for the first time we can literally see the light at the end of the tunnel [Music] the success of this entire job comes down to one man and one super strength piece of machinery [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's a staggering achievement but there's still one important question [Music] 15 hours that's 15 hours and 20 minutes you said 15 hours yeah we had a brew hold on Paul thanks Nick Matt thank you thank you but it's all these ones who did it all these ones who did it the guys have a lot to be proud of in just 15 hours they've demolished one of the widest Bridges I've ever come across in one of the most complicated demolitions I've ever been on Oswell that ends well that's what I see and it's ended well that bridge is in that street a few tricky moments I was always a bit bothered about the diaphragm being I was bothered about crashing the library Walling which was occupied on Monday morning but if I told everybody all means Securities we'd never get anything done would we 've got over every obstacle on this project busiest busway in Europe six thousand ton of concrete on it now so that's the next job we'll clean up after ourselves it's been an exhausting but impressive day's work for the boys but the job's not quite over yet when you've made a mess you've got to clean it up start cutting this wire roll's gonna be clear my drivers need to know where they're going the ball the job won't be over until every last bit of the bridge is cleared up and shipped out so it's the morning after the night before how's the tired Factor there will be no white flag over this door there will be no retreat of No Surrender keep going till the end of the road and we've got to get to that end of the road and we can go it might look like a pile of rubble to me and you but for Paul and his company it's all valuable Salvage there are a wire in that bridge all the reinforcing all going through a recycling station I see six thousand tons of recyclable concrete and there's about 200 tons of steel with about 20 000 pounds nice nice the concrete will be used to build New Roads while the steel will be melted down and sold making Paul and his team a tidy profit in my opinion the job's been a huge success but I've not been on a demolition yet where lessons haven't been learned we do have done it differently yeah there's one thing I should have done and that's get him to give me more money [Laughter] well maybe that's going to happen on the next job who knows yeah very good to meet you you too buddy see you in the next one yeah okay [Music] so in just 15 and a half hours they have removed the bridge that has stood for 46 years now explosives no Dynamite just some nice big machines and a bit of planning [Music] six weeks on the bridge is a distant memory the road is reopened to the public and Peter's Bookshop is still standing see you next time [Music] all around the world there are buildings and structures in desperate need of demolition the bridge was designed in the 30s so the bridge had served its useful life I'm Brendan Moore self-confessed demolition in this series I scoured the globe in Hunt of the biggest most dangerous there really aren't too many safe ways of doing it and most spectacular demolitions I can find my mission to reveal the inner workings behind the art of demolition to meet the experts picking a building down at that height has to be done carefully and the Machinery capable of leveling anything in their way a lot of science it goes into it it's not just like to match in uh whole years and wait for the Boom [Music] to me every demolition is a work of art but implosions are the real masterpieces everybody including myself appreciates the excitement of something being blown up and seconds later being reduced to Rubble but actually the most fascinating part of an implosion is what goes on behind the scenes and that's precisely why in this episode we're visiting the United States of America specifically a town called Alexandria in the southern state of Louisiana Alexandria lies in the center of the state home to around 50 000 people it's a busy city with a Heritage in Cotton farming and historic links to the U.S Air Force situated on the banks of the Red River that cuts across Louisiana the city is a busy thoroughfare linking the south of the state with the north with so much traffic it's not surprising that local infrastructure needs regular redesigning and updating you guessed it that means bringing in the demolition experts to clear space for the New Roads and structures the latest highlight of all that delicious destruction is this monster of a bridge until recently the OK Allen Bridge carried nearly 40 000 cars a day over the river but it's an old design built with old materials and it's time we helped it into retirement [Music] but no job of this magnitude is going to be easy it'll require some serious Manpower the Ingenuity of an experienced team and always some luck oh and one more thing a whole lot of explosives as the fate of an entire Road Network hangs in the balance top officials from the Department of Transportation and development are on site too no one appreciates the importance of bridges in the area more than they do there are 13 000 bridges in the state of Louisiana our Geographic makeup is so vastly different from any other state in the United States the many rivers that we have flowing through here swamps Lakes so many different type of wetlands that are Incorporated here in the state so we have quite a few Bridges dotd we're responsible for inspecting all 13 000 Bridges across the state we've invested over one billion dollars into just our bridges alone the OK Allen Bridge was built 79 years ago it's had a good run but it's starting to show its age and is no longer a practical route for the people of Alexandria okay Allen Bridge it was completed in 1936 it was built during the administration of Governor okay Allen Oscar K Allen he died the same year that the bridge was open he died in January of 1936 and the Bridge opened later that year this bridge was narrow and kind of scary for some people to cross it was kind of frightening to him because it was so narrow and an 18-wheeler would be coming the other way people would go out of their way to not go over the okay Allen Bridge because it was too traumatic for him design flaws aside the bridge posed a serious threat to the safety of the thousands of commuters that crossed it each day and So eventually it was closed to the public Bridge was designed in the 30s and is not cape cable only had 11 foot lanes and we only had 13 feet of vertical clearance and that caused us some problems with maintenance and keeping the bridge in service so the bridge had served its useful life the Tulane Bridge nowadays is not adequate given the capacity of the roadway freight loads are going across our highways these days are much heavier than they used to be in the past so the decision was made to widen it from a two-lane roadway to a four-lane roadway the disruption caused by the closure of this vital link over the Red River to neighboring Pineville would have been catastrophic to the flow of the local highways so the OK Allen's replacement was built before it closed just meters away and all traffic is now diverted across the new Curtis common Bridge it's a major Corridor right here through Central Louisiana the new bridge had to be close to the old one so it could connect to the existing highways but that causes a major headache for our demolishers and their explosive experts how do you blow up a huge stool structure like this Old Bridge without firing huge Twisted chunks of metal traveling hundreds of miles an hour over the surrounding area and risk bringing the brand new bridge down too you can't just strap Dynamite to the bridge and hope for the best months of preparation were required to get the bridge ready for demolition because of the length and weight of the bridge it couldn't be removed in just one simple piece before the team could even think of blowing this bridge into the history books all of the concrete was removed piece by piece to expose the steel skeleton below it was a long slow process it's taken six months or more but most of the structure has been removed all the remains right now is is the superstructure over the river itself between the two piers and that of course is what we hope to bring down with explosives tomorrow day before the Demolition and the explosives are being carefully placed onto the steel frame with so much at stake Deidra and a team have to ensure all angles are covered we're communicating with everyone above the contractors as well as law enforcement so it's in place to where we expect a successful outcome once the demolition of the bridge occurs but with all the planning in the world demolitions like these will always be dangerous jobs a bridge of this size length and weight there really aren't too many safe ways of doing it with any kind of blasting procedure there are dangers involved there's possibility that some of the explosive devices won't go off and therefore the bridge won't go anywhere and there's a possibility that some of the charges might go off and if some of them don't if that causes the bridge to lean to a certain side there is that possibility that it could hit the new bridge with so much that could go wrong the team are taking no Chances with Public Safety what we're going to do is close the road off the traffic and clear the area we get it all clear then we can start our inspection of the new bridge make sure it is safe for passage of the public they're working to a tight deadline not only do they need to reopen the new bridge as quickly as possible to limit disruption the debris also needs to be removed from the river local authorities are involved to make sure the operation runs smoothly we still have fishermen we still have commercial traffic that go up and down the river every day when it's a bridge actually enters the water this portion of the river is actually closed to all boating traffic until they get that debris out now the engineers they have a permit that lasts for 72 hours so within 72 hours they have to have that bridge totally clear of the river so all the debris has to be removed in 72 hours but for now the team have an implosion to get right a bridge this large needs an equally large quantity of explosives I wanted to find out more about how this explosion was being designed and what impact the blast could have on other structures around them so I'm meeting with John Woodward a demolition consultant and explosives expert g'day John hi to see you how would the demolition team at Louisiana have arrived at the decision to use explosives in the systems it depends on the structure where the structure sits and really the fabric of the building itself it's a steel structure so it lends itself to explosives I think they're difficulty with the bridge one each spanning the river so it's difficult then to put machines onto the bridge it's designed in a particular way with an arch which means that as you start to remove the arch then the strength and the bridge itself is removed so very difficult to put machines on the bridge from my point of view exposing to certainly the best way to deal with this book July okay how are the Charges going to bring a bridge like that down they get a place to is on the Arctic itself and on the bridge deck those are going to be on the junction point they have to be precise to cut it into the sections that they require we use various types of exposures depending on the structure that we're going to demolish now we're using cutting charges and The Cutting charge is basically a small section of copper which heats up to tremendous temperature cuts through the steel like a knife through butter which then creates a small Gap where the charge was which then allows the rest of the structure to start to move into the Gap and then gravity will bring it down and drop it in the room the key thing is to make sure that they've done everything possible because once you start the initiation there's nothing else they can do about it after that position but even if the charges go off as planned a Shockwave from the explosion could have disastrous consequences describe to me what a Shockwave is the best way I can describe a Shockwave is it's it's air being expelled away from the charge what they would be concerned about on the bridge is that because of the fact they need to get the bridge down quickly the exposures are going to go off in a sequence that is quite quick now if you just imagine it then pushes a large blast of air away from each of the charges what impact is that large amount of air pushing rapidly sideways how's it going to affect the existing bridge is there any way of controlling some boats the only real way we can do it is the timing of the blast if all the charges went off together you'd have a very large area of air being pushed away in all directions which means that possibly could unseat the bridge from the from the bearings next door so what they will do is they will determine that when the charges go off rather than one large massage going off a number of smaller charges fractionally after one another so you have a set of smaller waves going out rather than one large timing on this implosion is critical blow the charges at exactly the same moment and the combined shock wave could damage the new bridge too far apart and the bridge could fall the wrong way there's a lot of preparation Nation required several months to bring to fruition a few seconds of an implosion do we get nervous I think we do if you're not nervous then really you're too confident it is a science but you're also using things which you cannot 100 guarantee explosives are all slightly different so from our point of view once we initiate the exposes there's nothing we can do after that just a normal day to be offered the amount of variables that could affect this implosion are staggering even a cloudy day could have catastrophic consequences whenever a Shockwave goes off off of an explosion it's going to go out in every direction even though the charge itself is directional when it goes off it still has a shock wave that comes off of it that's going to go 360 degrees it's going to go up it's going to go out and as it reaches up into our atmosphere when it reaches cloud cover and things like that it's going to reflect off of those clouds it'll bounce back off it can bounce off of buildings and that sort of thing you would think it goes in a short distance but actually it keeps on going and going and going until it dissipates so on a nice clear day that shock wave when it goes up and out it's going to go out and kind of dissipate but if it has anything to reflect off such as cloud cover and things like that then that cloud cover is going to refocus that shock wave and send it in another direction there's a whole lot of science that goes into it it's not just like the match in the whole years and wait for the boom so you have to take all those things into consideration whenever you're doing this to keep the public safe as well as making the bridge do exactly what they wanted to do fingers crossed the weather improves tomorrow or this bridge might not be going anywhere it's 7am despite all the potential problems it's now or never for this demolition thankfully the skies are clear but a change in the weather could still throw months of planning out the window the charges have been painstakingly placed triple checked and detonators attached everyone begins to move into position a crowd of onlookers has gathered which provides an additional problem for the men on the ground trying to ensure everybody's safety so many people are out here ready to witness this historic event you've got people in boats you even got helicopters out here who are basically hovering above trying to get footage of this moment in time this moment in history we're working with law enforcement agencies from all across the state they are making sure that the Waterway is secure so that no boats no barges or anything of that nature will try to come through as we're preparing for the blast to take place blowing up the bridge is a very exciting thing for many people to come from all over to see it and that's our biggest concern we certainly don't want anyone within the Blasted Zone as far as the actual perimeter for the safety blast they've designated 1500 feet as the perimeter around it so they're going to make sure that no one is in that immediate area and then we have a secondary perimeter on the outside of that so we have definitely stationed up in different locations to where the public can actually get to as well as our traffic we still have traffic control so we stop the traffic outside those perimeters and we have to reroute that traffic in different directions Public Safety of course is out front and so if there's anything that's going to cause an extra danger to the public then we're going to postpone it because if anything goes wrong it could be for a major catastrophe yeah the traffic has been halted on the new bridge as congestion begins to build it's time to level the okay Allen so things can get moving again quickly foreign blows there's no turning back now at this point all the team can do is look on and hope that one Split Second in time isn't going to result in months of repair work to the new bridge I'm feeling just really really anxious that okay Allen trust Bridge has been a a Scenic icon for this area for so many years for for decades a piece of History that's basically going to be gone within a matter of milliseconds it's pretty amazing [Music] is it any second now the charges should go off and can sign this bridge to the history box [Music] the bridge drops and at first glance that looks like a textbook implosion undetectable to the human eye the charges went off within milliseconds of each other as planned and the bridge came down beautifully the steel frame of the bridge becomes completely detached from its base and because the explosives team managed to detonate every charge correctly gravity does its job and the structure just drops vertically into the river not a single piece flew off in any other direction once again a truly remarkable achievement from the demolition engineers [Music] one of the best things coolest things I've seen in a long time and I'm 77 years old it's pretty pretty cool never seen nothing like that but as impressive as that might have looked and although they have successfully dropped a huge Bridge straight into the Red River the drama is far from over [Music] shockwaves emitted from the explosion could have damaged the new bridge and this is damage that isn't easy to detect at least not until 30 tons of traffic starts moving on it and things start to crumble beneath them the old bridge was about 100 feet away from the new bridge so it was really close for a blast to take place we have our Bridge inspection teams out there they are up on the bridge inspecting the bridge looking for any unintended effects to the new bridge they need to be able to view the bridge from every conceivable angle so specialist equipment is brought in to help the engineers the time is of the essence though they have to get the road open as quickly as possible but you can't hurry this job if something is missed it could spell disaster they're on a tight schedule because we want to minimize the amount of time that the bridge is out of service and not available for public use so we are under a tight timeline they all know that we knew that when we planned the inspection to make sure that we did it as effectively efficiently and uh as thoroughly as we could so we have a lot of pressure [Music] looking for impact points any type of change in color of the the steel or the concrete looking for cracks looking for chips anything that might have blown against the bridge and created a crack or any any type of defect that would affect the structural carrying capacity of the member there's an equally pressing task going on under the bridge too part of the Bridge's frame Still Remains attached to its concrete legs it isn't safe for the cleanup crew to work directly underneath these not until they've been tested to ensure they aren't about to come Crashing Down if they aren't stable it could significantly delay the process and possibly the reopening of the new bridge so far so good thankfully it doesn't look like there's any immediate danger here and the crew can push on foreign really begins you can't just leave the debris of a huge Bridge like this lying in the river and the team move in to begin the giant clear up in the 72 hours they have to have that bridge totally clear of the river each chunk of the bridge is extremely large but was purposely blown up into manageable pieces so the heavy duty badges with cranes could pluck them out of the water the barges can lift huge weights without toppling that some seriously impressive strength we'll fish them out of the river pull them out load them onto a barge they'll be brought to the bank cut up into smaller pieces with hydraulic Cutters and then they'll be brought to a salvage yard no one likes to see the product of a good demolition go to waste so once this metal is loaded up onto the trucks it's going to be taken off and recycled [Music] meanwhile the inspection team wait nervously while the final parts of the new bridge are checked only then will we know if this demolition has been successful or not even the slightest crack could put the new bridge out of action for months spilling chaos for drivers in and around Alexandria just got word that our inspectors have looked at all the major components and everything is safe and just as it was before the blast went off we have just cleaned the roadway of all the debris and we are opening the road up and traffic is Flowing on the roadway [Music] destroying this bridge so successfully has been an incredible achievement for the team in Louisiana control and explosion so precisely is nothing short of remarkable there was so much that could have gone wrong but somehow these guys pulled it off and with some style too implosions are the money shots and demolition but only when they go well and this one was a beauty Deidre and her team couldn't be more pleased 24 hours we had this structure that's been there for years and just to see that it was there yesterday and just within milliseconds it's now gone it's it's pretty amazing are you okay Alan Bridges no more down after 79 years okay Allen Bridge's history it was a great day with history gone the bridge went just as planned all the charges we got to review the slow motion video and so all the charges went exactly as they were planned so everything worked out great the Blaster did a great job and a piece of History my hat's off to those guys that's another amazing demolition proving once again that there is as much skill and expertise in knocking things down as there is in building them up except in my opinion you need a bigger pair of wrecking balls if you want to be in the demolition game see you next time thank you all sorts of buildings are demolished every day of the week right across the world and in each case the structure will vary which means that the demolition crew will have to come up with a unique strategy for every single job the more unusual the structure the more brilliant the plan especially if it involves explosives and that's precisely what we found in Amour in Belgium at first glance this area doesn't look like it's home to any abnormal buildings but just beyond these residential streets stands a ginormous 170 meter high telecoms tower for 30 years this colossal column has been a blot on the local landscape but thankfully it's not going to live to Sea its 31st birthday until recently the tower was used by national telecommunications company proximus it helped them transmit data across Europe using microwave technology via a huge network of similar cloudbusters but advancements in technology and Fiber Optic Cables now move data much more efficiently and that's good news for us because Towers like this are no longer needed so we get to blow it up a rune for no works for proximus the owners of the Tower is very high building in the center of nowhere we don't need any more this kind of Technology maintenance of this kind of building is very very very expensive and therefore we put it down but bringing this monster down isn't going to be as simple as strapping some Dynamite to the bottom and hoping for the best control is key here and that's an even greater necessity when within range of the falling Tower is a busy highway get this one wrong and it could turn into a major incident and the severe disruption of the local infrastructure it's going to need a lot of preparation and the skilled hands of some demolition dynamos to get this one right and for this job that task falls to the wanti group and their man on the ground Christoph lamatra the difference in this project it's the form of the building it's a high tower only Tower in Belgium perhaps in Europe and perhaps in the world like this rather than blow the whole structure up from top to bottom potentially scattering debris for miles around the plan for this job is to destroy the base and watch the tower fall to the ground like a giant concrete tree there is a three-stage strategy in place and it'll require a combination of mechanical and explosive force stage one the defunct data center at the base of the tower will need to be destroyed first the team will have to be extremely careful doing this if they damage any of the towers three supporting legs in the process the tower could come crashing down without any control that could spell disaster stage 2 with the three legs now exposed it's time to plant the explosives a tower this big can't be allowed to just fall in any direction so the placement of the charges is critical to controlling the collapse with the local highway so close any mistakes could be catastrophic stage 3 boom time this is where we find out if all of the hard work has paid off if things go to plan it will topple in the least destructive or dangerous Direction possible if it doesn't they'll be left with a major incident on their hands to add to the pressure the tower is no longer as stable as it once was so it's not the safest environment to be working in even before we bring Dynamite into the equation it's unstable the concrete is wrong water getting into cracks in the concrete freezes and expands during the winter months making the cracks bigger and in time potentially forcing the tower to start falling apart of its own accord the Taurus is unsafe for the people who are walking around the Tower and the people who is riding on the highway just around the tower before stage one of the plan can swing into action the team are going to have to deal with an issue that could potentially stop this demolition in its tracks another Tower nearby is emitting electromagnetic waves those waves could block the signals sent from the remote control to the detonators that will set off the explosives once they've been placed on the tower the explosives expert on this job Etienne Le chelya is well aware of the possible ramifications we must be certain that we don't have any electromagnetic interference with all that natures if we have interference the date natives will never blow out and it's quite a problem when the job to perform is to blast in order to find out if the electromagnetic waves are going to make life difficult for Etienne it's going to attempt a test explosion using the remote control today we have tests of a system of that Natures in real condition we have placed the death Natures at the highest place where we are going to to blast 100 meter hi we have placed all that Nature's incense in order to definitely avoid any projection of pieces of metal to really the real conditions of execution of the job we start those detonators from the the same place where we are going to be the day of the demolitions thank you Gideon sets up the remote and arms the detonators if the signal is interrupted then the charges won't explode and this job might be put on hold indefinitely one two three once again between two detonators not the biggest bank atians ever had but it still put a smile on his face it's the green light they wanted that allows them to push forward with their plan everything worked perfectly fine we can be confident in what will happen the the D-Day bringing down a complex structure like this one though isn't going to be easy and before anyone can crack open the dynamite there's a lot of very careful groundwork that needs to go into preparing the tower and if this isn't done properly setting off those explosives could see Belgium launch its first rocket into space foreign Detonator test we're ready to take the first step towards Bringing Down the tower it's time to demolish the old data center building at its base with a complex internal structure this won't be as straightforward as knocking down a few walls we have to cut the fixation in the concrete in steel in order to make a separation between the the Torah and the building amongst other things the tower also has an elevator that will need to be dismantled and removed with the elevator halfway up the shaft and the power supply to the tower cut off the only way to bring it down is to snip the cable and let gravity do the rest Look Out Below [Applause] [Music] with the work on the inside completed time to bring the machines in to finish this stage of the job introducing big blue an excavator with a punch on the glass with the glass removed it gives the team the First Clear Sight of the tower's three legs the this part of the job will require great skill and a steady hand if any of the legs are damaged at this stage the tower could become dangerously unstable with a busy highway within touching distance mistakes now could be disastrous we have to be careful with the machine the concrete is very hard serious power is required to Crunch through so much concrete but this is where the specialist Machinery comes into its own to bring the data center building down in and around the legs all of the interior concrete floors and walls need to be carefully knocked out it may seem like a simple job to the untrained eye but the team are only ever just one wrong move away from damaging one of the three supporting legs and causing an uncontrolled collapse nerve-wracking times for the boys on the ground the final pillar around the first leg removed the danger passes but with two more legs still to free they're only a third of the way there but some parts of this building aren't going to go quietly [Music] a lot of what's being taken down is directly connected to the legs at the tower it needs to be skillfully removed to ensure nothing affects the stability of the structure we don't want this thing coming down just yet last thing we want is huge chunks of concrete swinging freely and potentially damaging the second leg in the blink of an eye we're Suddenly at the most hair-raising moment of the job so far [Music] they need to disconnect this from the building as quickly as they can before they find themselves in a critical situation [Music] foreign that was close but in the end big blue manages to bring down that large section without causing any damage to the second leg with the Lion's Share of the building now removed clearing what remains around plate number three is a much simpler task [Music] phase one complete hey I'm happy with the progress of the work it's a good job no demolition ever goes precisely as planned and with a highly unusual structure like this one it makes the likelihood of a smooth path to implosion even less likely but as ever it is down to the Ingenuity of the experts on the ground to find solutions to any hurdles placed in their path with stage one complete stage two on the horizon and with the dynamite arriving tomorrow our explosives expert etiam has some time to survey the site he needs to finalize his plan to ensure he controls the direction in which the tower will fall our goal is to move away from the motorway that is that direction we want to go in that direction in that Countryside because there is nothing risky in that direction the team will insert explosives into the leg that points in the direction in which they need the tower to fall away from the local Highway completely destroying this Lake first will force the tower to begin toppling along the correct trajectory milliseconds later explosives will go off on both of the other two legs simultaneously these legs will only have Dynamite inserted into one side the side that faces the first leg and the direction in which the tower is being manipulated into falling the unexploded side of those two legs will then act as a hinge further ensuring the crumbling Tower remains on the correct bearing once the tower starts to come down at its base more explosives will go off 100 meters up the tower but this time on the side facing the highway that should force the top 70 meters of the tower to fall back on itself reducing the radius of Destruction on the ground and restricting the cleanup site to the smallest possible area the two parts of the building are going to collapse one above the orders all the volume of material will collapse that direction the two legs only being partially imploded on one side will have charges inserted directly into their concrete base however it's vital that the base of the first leg to be imploded the one facing the direction the tower Must Fall is completely obliterated as quickly as possible Etienne is using what he hopes is the perfect technique to address this we are going to to fill the bottom of the lake with water and place explosive in the middle of the the leg and with the the presence of water in that volume the concrete will completely be destroyed when an explosion occurs outside of water the air surrounding it is pushed away at great force from the center of the blast similarly an explosion going off underwater will push the surrounding liquid away from it with immense Force the difference between the two is that when moving air strikes an object the air will compress reducing the overall impact however as water does not easily compress its impact on a surrounding object during explosion is much greater explosives inserted into a concrete structure like this will be placed all around the perimeter of the object edian is using water to ensure the maximum ferocity of the blast he'll be placing the dynamite in the center of the structure surrounding it with water and letting the force of the liquid blast through the concrete the team are confident they have the perfect plan but it ends under No Illusion that demolition is a wicked mistress and there's a lot that might go wrong if the water leaks the method cannot work so that's the reason why we need to check the filling of the legs we can lose a kind of accuracy in the direction of collapsing one legs could be a bit weaker than the other and this could induce a slight rotation of the whole building the question is just where it's going to fall down with plans in place and the dynamite not arriving until tomorrow all they can do now is wait and double check they've considered every eventuality it's an early start for everyone involved as the dynamite rolls on site at 6am with only four hours to lay the explosives the men are quickly briefed before cracking on with the job at hand speed is off the essence but complacency is a killer in this game the team will need to work fast but use all their experience and professionalism to make sure they match efficiency with safety [Music] [Music] there is no job involving an implosion that isn't hazardous and though there are strict rules to abide by when handling explosives the risk of an accident is extremely high and it is not the sort of accident that you can walk away from if things aren't done right mistakes can become lethal explosives already positioned underwater inside the first leg the charges are being inserted into the other two legs we have four hours we have about 200 holes to load we have about 100 holes on the top at 100 meter 60 all in the legs A and B with the scheduled implosion time drawing of a closer no risks are being taken with the safety of people in the vicinity roads are closed and explosions are set up and a helicopter flies above with a heat sensing infrared camera to ensure nobody is anywhere near the site Etienne has one final opportunity to check everything before he too has to clear the area and he makes sure all the dynamite holes are secure a crowd of locals gather there's much anticipation surrounding this implosion and Kristoff on the team will be praying they can deliver as expected this is a huge moment for Etienne will all of his planning pay off will the tower fall in the right direction foreign [Music] what an incredible moment see such a huge Tower reduced to Rubble in a matter of seconds is not only extremely satisfying but such an impressive feat by edian and the team the tower fell in precisely the direction they wanted the explosives went off at just the right time and the top half of the structure fell back on itself as planned [Music] the highway is reopened with very little disruption and this Tower is consigned to history I am happy it's a good job just a little bit crying to see the the tower on the ground went not so bad in terms of Direction and in term of blasting everything worked very fine the result is very good [Music] now I'm feeling relaxed and now I'm going to celebrate it's yes drink some some beer [Music] foreign Sensational another beautifully executed implosion by a highly skilled and professional team the dramatic final few seconds of this demolition are what will grab the headlines but whilst I love a good implosion just as much as the next man I can't help but feel the most impressive part of this job is all the work it took to get there see you next time [Music] all around the world there are buildings and structures in desperate need of demolition the bridge was designed in the 30s so the bridge has served its useful life I'm Brendan Moore self-confessed demolition junkie in this series I scoured the globe in Hunt of the biggest most dangerous there really aren't too many safe ways of doing it and most spectacular demolitions I can find my mission to reveal the inner workings behind the art of demolition to meet the experts taking a building down at that height has to be done carefully and the Machinery capable of leveling anything in their way is it goes into it's not just like the match in the whole years and wait for the Boom all sorts of buildings are demolished every day of the week right across the world and in each case the structure will vary which means that the demolition crew will have to come up with a unique strategy for every single job and that was very much the case when we visited Seaforth in the northwest of England just up the road from the famous city of Liverpool Seaforth is a largely residential area but also home to a busy container port and it's in Seaforth that these two 14-story tower blocks Montgomery house and Alexander house have stood since the 1960s but you guessed it both of these outdated eyesores are soon to be no more all the residents have moved out and that means it's time for the demolition team to move in the man assigned with the task of launching an all-out assault on this Antiquated architecture is Sean Ingram operations manager for Jay Bryant's demolition we are currently demolishing two high-rise boxer Flats 14 Story 4 Flats per floor the client has decided to demolish both the blocks to undergo a period of urban regeneration the sheer size of these buildings automatically makes this a very difficult job these towers are surrounded by and stand near meters from hundreds of homes if either of these two fill to the side not just one but entire streets of houses could be destroyed it won't be safe enough for nearby residents to be in the vicinity of these towers whilst they're being demolished that means evacuating hundreds of locals until the buildings are on the ground all that inconvenient upheaval means a lengthy demolition method should be avoided so that only leaves one option and it's my favorite implosion and the building breaker ready to send these towers to meet their maker is skyscraper hater Robin rushforth a specialist in explosives we're using the blow down technique or the uh the implosion method rather than mechanical demolition on these buildings to minimize the inconvenience to the neighbors to do is ask people to leave their houses for a couple of hours maybe on a Sunday morning we blow the building down to the ground and then it can all be cleared up with everybody back in the houses and going on with their lives around the outside of us it might be the quickest way to knock a building down but using explosives to flatten two 14-story buildings without damaging any nearby properties seems like an almost unfathomable feat and Robin has other variables to consider too we've got about 300 houses that are being evacuated but we've also got to coordinate the actual blow down with trains passing just in case our dust cloud blows across the railway lines its job is rapidly becoming one of the most nerve-wracking and difficult I can remember I'm not sure I've seen the stakes any higher hundreds of homes are at risk the pressure on these guys to get it right is immense with so much on the line they need the perfect plan foreign they're going to tackle the towers in three stages stage one carefully and precisely weaken each of the towers in a way that helps control the direction in which they'll fall when they're imploded stage two time to test the explosives it's very hard to accurately predict how different structures will react to Dynamite this test will help Robin decide how much where and how deep he inserts it and what type of explosive he'll use on the day stage three locals are evacuated from their homes an exclusion zone is set up and Robin detonates the explosives in both towers and everybody prays they fall down without causing any damage to the local area using explosives won't just destroy the building they'll help control the direction it falls as well so the intention with Churchill house is that it'll will slightly drift over towards us and the way we do that is by using time delays between the charges as we work across the building Churchill house needs to move very slightly in One Direction in order to fall into the tiny space it has to drop into explosives will go off in a carefully timed sequence that should help direct the collapse to where Robin wants it switches the one over the houses about eight meters away from that Montgomery house is in even closer proximity to local homes however it has a slightly larger space in which it can move into when it comes down so Robin will blow out a wedge shape at the base that should then draw the building more directly into the area he desires we're expecting that one to come something like 12 or 14 meters whereas this one will probably only go eight to ten meters something like that that kind of precision is mind-boggling I'm not sure I could park a car that carefully let alone a 14-story building stage one requires the team to move inside the building and begin weakening the structure that should help bring them down as they want but these old apartment blocks are like amazing side notoriously cramped with limited access there's no chance of getting a large excavator inside but the work is too difficult to do by hand solution a very clever piece of Robotics enter the Brock a remote controlled concrete killer with Incredible mobility and tremendous power [Music] the benefit to using the Brock obviously we've got narrow doorways and we've got stairs to negotiate with inside the building Steve Kegley is The Man Behind the controls the Brock [Music] it might be small but it packs a massive punch completing the work of 10 men in half the time and it's an incredibly important part of the process within the building we've marked out various breakouts which need to be done to what the Brocks are doing is they go ahead and they break out a panel a section of wall building collapses as we wanted to collapse structural specific points there's no guarantee that the building will fall as they need it to if they're to be ready for implosion day they have to stick to a tight schedule and the Brock makes that possible before they know it stage one is complete both Towers have been pre-weakened and are ready for implosion but as Robin inspects the work he notices something that concerns him well this panel has completely Fallen to base what's happened is all this still reinforcing has gone Rusty and when it goes Rusty the rust actually expands and it just blows the face off the concrete so you can see they just loose lumps here falling off what we've got to do is take a best interpretation as to what we're actually dealing with when it comes to the strengths of the building and then we can use that to form our estimations as to how the building is going to collapse but it's unfortunately not an exact science Robin's Discovery puts his original assumptions about how this building might fall into some doubts and on half the fact that this new information into his plans plans that so far has been working on somewhat blind there's not been any drawings or anything provided for these structures so all the information we've got from them pretty much has been obtained by visually inspection with no concrete facts about this concrete Flats it's impossible to know precisely how much explosive you will need and where it should be placed in order to control how the building will fall so Robin's arranged an experiment time for phase two of this demolition testing the explosives now not enough and the building stays standing it becomes a health and safety nightmare too much and you risk blowing apart not just the building but half the local community as well they have to get this right what we're going to be doing today is a small scale trial blast on two different locations we've carried out calculations that tell us what the charges should be theoretically but that gives us a range and then we just home in on precisely the charge rate that we need to use we're going to put some large charges in one location some slightly smaller ones in another location and then we'll see which ones are effective and also prove that the containment materials we're going to use the wrap materials we're putting around the explosives are effective in preventing any debris flying ahead of the test Robin is estimating that he'll need explosive charges each weighing 20 grams in the top portion of the building and where he needs more blast power in the lower portion 40 gram charges this test will also reveal how the explosive should be contained within the concrete flying debris must be avoided at all costs with so many houses literally a stone's throwaway how the charges are laid will affect how much shrapnel will be expelled we've got is some holes which we've got one drilled in here one drilled in here and they are about half a meter deep and then this is the actual explosives that we're using and in order to make that explosive go bang we have a destinator here so the destination that actually goes bang is that little shiny piece on the end so we attach the two together with some insulating tape and then that goes into the hole in the wall like that after that Robin seals the charge in the hole with Clay connects everything up and the test blast is ready to go this test blast may be minuscule compared to what's coming on implosion day but every safety precaution still needs to be taken we're all clear Robin's using a remote Detonator to set the charges off okay we're armed three two one two or firing [Music] the crew head back inside to see what the test has revealed the first thing to check is whether or not they're wrapping they're placed around the explosives has managed to suppress any flying debris a very important part of what they need to achieve when they implode the entire building yeah I'm happy with that particularly what we're looking for is tearing of the rub nothing sort of split open or anything like that around our feet down here there's no debris spread about and equally down there there's no debris spread around on the floor down there so we're happy that that's contained importantly Robin also needs to check whether the amount of explosive he's using is powerful enough to decimate the concrete it's inserted into first the photogram charges he plans to place in the lower parts of the building you can see there that all that concrete is all nicely broken and that's completely lost its structural Integrity if this had been the demolition of the building for real the building would be collapsing so far so good Robin checks the Damage Done by his 20 gram charges next right what I'm seeing here now is this front panel wall is still intact the back of it's blown out in there quite satisfactorily this is all loose here so I think that what we're learning here is that 20 gram per meter is just a little bit too light and that we need to be looking at 40 gram all the way through although as Robin found out earlier some of the concrete in the tower seems to be weak and crumbling away this new discovery suggests that other parts are still strong enough to withstand the force of smaller amounts of explosives mixed findings like these aren't uncommon in Old buildings but it makes Robin's job all the harder to get right the next step is to wrap each floor where charges will be laid once the wrapping is completed it's time to carefully insert the explosives into the thick concrete walls and supports that hold the building up with the explosives laid in both Montgomery and Churchill houses they're now primed for their implosion tomorrow [Music] so they've done the tests and the building is now loaded with 40 gram sticks of explosives it's just time for Robin and his team to do their final checks and say what will hopefully be their final goodbyes to these ugly concrete Towers a New Day brings with it Great Expectations a large exclusion Zone has been set up around both towers and that means that hundreds of residents have had to temporarily leave their homes until the implosion has been completed let's just hope everything goes well and they still have homes to return to the police are on hand to help secure the area and a crowd of locals has gathered to witness this historic moment from their position adjacent to both Towers Robin Sean and the rest of their team stand by the remote Detonator console that will set the charges off all eyes are on them and the buildings the horn goes off to warn everyone that we're just seconds from the implosion [Music] the moment has a hasn't three two one firing charges go off in both Towers but they're still standing you are joking yeah there's confusion amongst the bystanders no one knows what's happened Robin's biggest fear now is that although the buildings are still up they could be seriously unstable and potentially at risk of collapsing uncontrollably they need a plan B and quickly but before they can do anything a noise from Churchill house grabs everybody's attention [Music] thank you suddenly in just seconds 14 stories of tower block collapse onto the ground amazingly it landed perfectly precisely where Robin had planned it may have taken Everybody by surprise but despite cleaning on for dear life eventually it succumbed and fell beautifully into its pre-reserved resting place approximately 45 minutes after the explosives have detonated the building was brought down it's not too unnatural obviously the the explosives crack the concrete and then gravity tends to take its own course and just in this case it's up 45 minutes later than planned [Music] don't keep everyone at a safe distance [Music] for the residents who are outside of the zone so there's not really you know safety was still the number one priority and the building was brought down safety with no casualty to or damage the property either [Music] Churchill may be down but at the moment Montgomery is still standing strong the danger is far from over nobody knows how stable the building is and whether it too might fall at any moment to give him some Clues Robin takes a look at what's left of Churchill house now it's down we've had a quick look at the debris pile and it would appear that what's actually been the cause of the problem is that there was steel pipe sections actually set in the middle of the concrete legs now never come across this before and neither of any of the engineers who I've been speaking to about it we were drilling into the legs to place the explosives and we thought that the drills were actually hitting the steel reinforcing bar but the reality is that they were hitting a strong seal station which had enough strength in it for a short period of time to actually carry the weight of the building armed with this new information Robin can make a more informed decision about how to tackle Montgomery house and with hundreds of residents still locked out of their homes he doesn't have long to do it what we're looking at doing is going to obtain some heavy wire pulling rope and we're going to use a remote control machine so we can drive that through the building and use that to thread the pulling rope around the columns that have got the metal sections in them and then we'll pull on that with two large heavy excavators and hopefully that will have enough Force to actually bend and buckle the steel that's currently supporting the building allowing the building to drop Robin's plan is simple thread the still cable through and around the concrete pillars containing the steel attached to excavators at either end of the cable and pull hopefully this will pull down the remaining supports and the tower will fall but as we know there's no guarantees in this game and the team can't be 100 sure that this new plan will see Montgomery fall in the direction they originally hoped these big wire ropes we're looking at using are 48 millimeters diameter the braking strain on that without doing the calculation now would be something the order of about 70 tons or something of that order so plenty enough to actually Buckle the steel columns the limiting factor will be how hard the excavators can actually pull it's far too dangerous for any of the crew to go inside so it's the job of Brock the remote controlled robot to thread the cables around exposed supports at the base of the building the problem is that the collapse mechanism that we'd originally anticipated it's all about the actual timing of the removal of the legs but pulling with a rope you can't say exactly that one leg is going to go a few milliseconds before another leg you've got a rope around two legs and whichever one is the weakest is the one that'll go first if one side comes out first it will cause the building to sway and possibly topple and if that happens then it may not fall forward in the direction we want it to this is an Innovative and courageous move by Robin if it works then the building could come down just a few hours delayed if not then new plans will have to be hatched and that might mean a much longer wait for the local residents before they can get back into their homes once the seal cabling has carefully been threaded underneath the building and around the remaining supports the excavators move in each one will take an end of the cable and pull with all their minds there's no way of guaranteeing that if the tower does fall that it isn't going to take out an entire Street of homes so this is a massive moment for all involved the excavators begin to take the strain everyone holds their breath and All Eyes Are Fixed On Montgomery house there's a loud cracking noise from the tower something's happening it looks like it's going to drop smoothing but there's no way of telling in which direction it might fall and now it stopped it's not stable though and it's leaning towards the houses below despite that the excavators keep pulling they can't just leave it hanging where it is here it comes but only one corner of the tower has come down thankfully it's not fallen out under the houses below Robin stops the excavators from continuing to pull on the cable we pulled out two of the legs so as this section of building came down and collapsed it swung around sideways which was always a consideration it basically proven to us that to further apply the pulling rope technique is probably going to end up causing more problems and it's going to cure the next step that's available to us now really is the high reach machine that is the ultimate solution to the problem despite the inconvenience of failing to pull this Tower to the ground as quickly as everyone hoped Robin makes the most sensible call he can bringing in a huge High Reach excavator is by far the safest option and slowly but surely bringing the remainder of this Tower down to the ground level piece by piece always full of surprises not least because every building has its own secrets these towers proved worthy foes for Robin and the demolition team but one way or another there was no question who would come out on top in the end a few more days for the excavator to complete its job [Music] but eventually Montgomery house was reduced to a pile of rubble that no longer posed a threat to the neighboring houses and although the locals may have had to spend a few nights away from the comfort of their homes at least they had one to go back to eventually just like their namesakes The Churchill and Montgomery Towers have been consigned to the history books yet another remarkable demolition expertly navigated by the team on site join me for more world of demolition I'll see you next time [Music] there's a lot I love about demolition but it's the unusual jobs that I like the most and every now and then you come across something so unique it's unlike anything that you've seen before and if explosives are involved you know that when the time comes to press the button on the Detonator you are guaranteed a front row seat in one hell of a spectacular show and that's precisely what we've been invited to in linmouth and in Newcastle in the northeast of England Coast overlooking the North 's area has a rich industrial Heritage and over the years has been home to a variety of production plants tuning out all kinds of materials on a massive scale those kind of facilities don't last forever though and when economic conditions change as quickly as they open up they close down and that's exactly what happened to this Mammoth aluminum smelter it's been on this site since 1974 but production eventually ceased in 2012. [Music] this place was once one of the leading producers of aluminum in Europe an operation that big produces a significant amount of emissions that means you need chimneys and in this case lots of them Tim Arnold and demolition Services Limited are charged with getting these statues stacks on the ground we've got eight chimneys which are automators tall concrete and these fearsome flues were built to last each one is nearly eight meters in diameter constructed with thick concrete and reinforced with steel getting these down is going to be incredibly tough but that's far from the biggest concern on this job though to produce just one ton of aluminum this plant consumed as much electricity as an average family would use over 20 years to get that much juice they built their own power station next door less than 200 meters away [Music] that facility is still operating and providing electricity to the local community so taking down eight giant chimneys a stone's throw from important substations is a massive risk if any of them fell onto or fired debris over those sites it could cause a blackout for the entire area so choosing the method by which to demolish this hateful eight wasn't taken lightly but luckily for us after weighing up all the options explosives ended up being weapon of choice on this job we've chosen their explosive eye for the chimneys because it's quicker easier and I think it's a lot safer and we wouldn't want to eat the um substation down the bottom end there is a genuine sense of anxiety around an implosion like this when the consequences of spraying debris are so dramatic the pressure on site is palpable it's hard enough to contain the shrapnel from just one structure when using explosives but these guys have eight 80 meter Rubble Rockets to contend with it's truly hair-raising before they can start on the chimneys though they need to remove everything attached to them we've got a big shed at the back of us which is about about seven thousand ton of scrap and there's about 400 ton of alley any clad sheets on there the team have broken down this demolition into four main stages stage one pull down the still framework that connects this suit shed to the chimneys but in the process don't damage or pull any of them down stage two with the outer still structure removed they'll gain access to the shed itself using High Reach excavators they need to pull this huge building down to clear the area around the towers stage three prepare the chimneys for implosion that means weakening the concrete and methodically inserting the explosives so they can control when and how these beasts will fall stage four detonate the charges in groups and pray everything drops in the direction it's supposed to so first do we have to tick all the um duct work off off the chimneys which extracted the dust from The Foundry using shears and big blue as I call it Big Blue is the 97.4 she buys about 100 tonne she's got some power and big blue will need all that power if she's to get through stage one and break through all the Ducks and steel framework around the shed it might seem like brute force is all that's required to do this but Tim needs to be much more precise than that if he accidentally damaged one of the chimneys it could come down uncontrollably and hit the electricity substation or worse than men on site foreign the team are on a tight schedule to be ready for the planned implosion day things are going okay so far but progress has been slow they've underestimated the strength of some of the still work so even Big Blue's mechanical muscles are struggling the doctor's been harder than I thought I don't know I don't think we've waking it enough should have cut these back legs there as well as the front so why is the drama outcome but we'll get it we'll get it sometimes a more Hands-On approach is appropriate cutting through some of the legs should make the excavator's job much easier and speed up this stage of the job with the weakening complete hopefully they can push on and complete stage one so they can gain access to the main shed but there's a problem Tim can't get big blue started up again diesel I think diesel problems with the only excavator on site strong enough to handle this stage of the demolition out of action they risk falling behind Joey Priestley might be the only person on site who can save the day he thinks there's a problem with the diesel filter in big blue and they set about replacing it in hope it gets them moving again quickly just top that filter back well with clean diesel um replace the old one which is there I don't know if we try again the implosion day deadline in jeopardy they need to get blue up and running again and quickly they try the engine but nothing big blow strikes again it might be worse than they thought that's one of those it's definitely keep pressure upstairs after further investigation they think they found the answer she's ready we've found a broken wire and it's uh not making the stock solenoid work at all so it's constantly off but now he's just wired it back in just need to go and get some electrical connectors and then obviously it'll be a goal replacement wire is rushed to the side and they refit it as quickly as they can [Music] the wire replaced now comes the moment of truth with a much welcomed defiant raw Blues brings back to life [Music] it's not long before we're back on schedule and metallic mincemeat is made of the still framework around the shed [Music] a stage one nears completion Tim reaches the most nerve-wracking part of the job so far final duct is firmly attached to the side of the stack it needs to come down but everyone holds their breath and praise the chimney doesn't come with it too [Music] but it's down and everything else is still up size of relief all round now they have access to the main body of the shed it's time to move into stage two getting it safely on the ground at first glance pulling this down might seem straightforward but there's significant risks involved Thai Roots cutting cutting is very dangerous work with literally tons of metal above them the operators in the excavators need nerves of Steel to complete this part of the job [Music] so far so good and they're nearing completion however they've saved the worst part till last the rolling crane sat on Rails high above the factory floor we'll go into the shed and pull a big 200 tonne crayons down that's a bit dramatic because you don't know which way them for sometimes the crane would move up and down the length of the shed carrying huge loads from one end to the other it's the heaviest piece of mechanics in the entire facility whilst it seems to be going in the right direction it's still free to move back and forth on the rails if it slipped backwards now or the walls gave way and it fell it would flatten the excavator underneath it's down with the bulk of the work in the shed now complete the all that's left for the next few days is to clear up the mammoth mess they've made and make space for the biggest implosion party as countries ever seen [Music] heavy machinery and the skills of those who operate them are vital to just about any demolition job but don't be fooled into thinking that it's just a case of turning up knocking it down and then getting out of town the strategizing and the planning that goes on before and during all of these projects is just as important as the brute force that ends them foreign with the shed gone and the chimney is now fully accessible the site resembles limuth's answer to NASA's Cape Canaveral let's just hope these Rockets clear space and don't take off into it stood with choreographing The Filling of these flus is explosives expert Robin rushforth what we're essentially going to do is prepare them so we can blast a wedge-shaped section out of the bottom of them pretty much in the same way as filling a tree Robin's plan is to weaken each of the towers and strategically place the explosives in a way that should control the all-important direction they'll fall when the charges are detonated what you need to do is be certain that the section you've blast at the bottom is actually going to make them go in the right direction because the chimneys are only 300 mil to 350 mil thick we drill the holes down at 45 degrees we don't drill them horizontally [Music] this is one of the breakouts but we do this is in the actual side of the chimney so the actual direction of fall for this chimney is going to be straight down that way down the side what we've got is it's a triangular shape coming down to here so this is the hinge line this section here is not being blasted whereas in front of it is the bit that's coming out and Robin's all too aware of the disastrous consequences that not controlling the collapse could lead to the issue is that we have got the live substation behind the chimneys Robin's idea not only dictates the direction each chimney Falls but the order in which they do so one Tower knocking over another must be avoided but he also has to make sure that debris from one doesn't cut the wires connecting the Detonator to the charges in another the team will attempt to blow the first two towers at the same time followed by the Third on its own then the fourth and finally the remaining four together with a plan in place Robin now needs to check that all the explosives he requires are on site and conduct a simple Detonator test to remain a safe distance away the intention on implosion day is to use a wireless Detonator to set the charges off Robin one piece of wood nil but he has a much bigger team of opponents to contend with tomorrow implosion day but the demolition Gods aren't looking down on the team very favorably this morning and even if they were I'm not sure they'd be able to see them the weather conditions are horrible but like any demolition time is money and there's deadlines to meet there's no way they can call it off at this late stage a difficult job just got a lot harder Robin has just enough time to check everything's in position and run over how he hopes this implosion will play out we now have all the explosives put in place on this chimney so what we've done is we have a Detonator which is on the inside behind me just about there uh where it's all nicely protected and when that Detonator goes off what happens is it will send a shock wave through the leads up on the inside of the chimney which are these green ones that come over the top of the opening and then that shock wave travels down through this network of green cables that look a bit like a cobweb and comes down to the individual explosive charges which are actually in these holes now that is happening probably about six and a half seven thousand meters a second something like that which means that to all intents and purposes these charges all go off at exactly the same time when the explosives fire they basically remove the concrete from here which then causes the chimney to fall in the direction we wanted to straight down to the middle of the site Danny Wilkinson is the site manager and is ensuring that everybody remains safe during what should be one of the most unique demolitions any of them have ever experienced I've got all my men going out now in Central positions around the perimeter just to make sure the public are safe nobody comes in and we've also got urbanless cameras around the site that are controlled from the guide house I can keep an eye on everything Robin's just finishing his charging up and we'll be ready to start blowing them down optimistic but very nervous if the down come down it means a lot more work for us the final job to complete before implosion is the cutting of Steel that reinforces the chimneys at their base as the big moment arrives all anyone can do now is hope that whatever happens the towers don't topple onto the nearby electrical substations and cause a blackout for the entire area Robin is ready to detonate the first two towers everyone holds their breath this is it three two but nothing happens you sure you switched it on John don't know but he's out of range he was in rain for us sir right arms I'm gonna fire them yeah yeah three two all right arrange again it doesn't look like the wireless Detonator is working Robin needs to work out why and fast right the problem that we're having is this is the receiver unit which is actual firing unit and this stands near the base of the chimney and it receives a firing signal through this aerial but unfortunately we've got water from this rain has gone into this connection here which is stopping it from working so with wireless no longer an option all they can do is get right up close to the chimney and connect directly to them with Detonator cord to say they're at the coal face is an understatement if these towers don't fall in the direction they should they could come down right on top of them rather than do two at once Robin's going to test the first one on its own we're armed three two one firing oh here we go it's down just meters from Robin and the team but safely into the position they planned we're getting the exact collapse mechanism that we had expected the chimney sort of leans forward a little bit first then it settles down backwards which creates that bent in the ground behind it and then the chimney goes over and Falls a distance exactly on the line we'd intended one down seven to go confident they're back on track Robin Fells another third one [Music] [Music] next two at the same time [Music] and now the big finale the last four all at once three two one firing thank you that's the most beautiful display of demolition fireworks I think I've ever seen none of the chimneys or any of the debris fell onto the electrical substations in fact all of them came to rest precisely where they were supposed to we had a slightly bad start the remote control system didn't seem to like the weather but Robbins changed it and gone for a direct method as you can see there we've now more chimneys it's been a long build up to this I mean 14 months now everything's gone as well as can be expected must have been cleared up operations now can considering the complications and inherent dangers surrounding this demolition it's remarkable that this job was completed so spectacularly and so professionally incredible demolitions like this one don't come along often and I am honored to have been privy to the very smart work that went on behind the scenes once again it's a victory for the demolition industry and the professionals whose Flawless work makes me proud to profess I am their biggest fan so join me the Demolition Man next time for more delicious destruction all around the world there are buildings and structures in desperate need of demolition the bridge was designed in the 30s so the bridge has served its useful life I'm Brendan Moore self-confessed demolition junkie in this series I scoured the globe in Hunt of the biggest most dangerous there really aren't too many safe ways of doing it and most spectacular demolitions I can find my mission to reveal the inner workings behind the art of demolition to meet the experts taking a building down at that height has to be done carefully and the Machinery capable of leveling anything in their way is it goes into it's not just like the match in the whole years and wait for the Boom [Music] I've been lucky to witness some incredible demolitions during my hunt around the world for the biggest and the best and in this episode we get to look back at some of the most interesting and dramatic moments that I've encountered along the way [Music] from the difficult but carefully planned and executed demolitions to the huge implosions that bring buildings down in seconds no matter what type of job it is each demolition has its own unique set of challenges with so much on the line including the safety of all involved there's no room for mistakes that means the pressure is on and making decisions in those make or break moments requires nerves of Steel and that's precisely what was required in Manchester England where I went to witness the deconstruction of a huge concrete bridge Manchester is a city famous for football its ship canal and the universities steeped in history [Music] originally built in the 19th century the university boasts some incredible architecture but it was time for some of its more modern structures to be confined to the history books like this great ugly Bridge 36 meters long and 21 meters wide it was a 6 000 ton monster a bridge that big was not coming down without a fight Paul Johnson and the team for Bradley demolitions were up for the challenge and all of their 30 years of experience were called into play when they started breaking into extremely dangerous parts of the bridge up monkey the cables are the backbone of the bridge taking the weight of all 6000 tons cut under tension all pressure held on the steel would be released at once whipping the cables out with Incredible Force we're relieving that tension [Music] for the next few minutes the success of the whole project relies on the Steady Hand of the expert cutters [Music] when seven and a half tons the machine weighs six and five tools the tension begins to come out of the cables but we must make sure we don't come too early if a Cable's cut while still torn it'll blast out of the bridge showing us all with huge lumps of concrete foreign [Music] controlling the direction a building will collapse in when it's being demolished is never an easy task especially when your weapon of choice is dynamite in the demolition business the bigger the structure the greater the radius of Destruction and they don't come much bigger than this job in the more Belgium this giant 170 meter tall telecoms tower used to transmit electromagnetic signals around Europe but that technology is outdated and that meant this monster was out of a job too big to take apart with machines implosion was the only way to go but with a busy highway mere meters away the demolition Engineers needed to ensure that when this one blew it did so in the opposite direction or that it faced a catastrophic situation with jobs like this one with so much on the line there was only one shot and there was no room for mistakes the explosives expert on this job Etienne Le Shelia has some time to survey the site he needs to finalize his plan to ensure he controls the direction in which the tower will fall our goal is to move away from the motorway that is that direction we we want to go in that direction in that Countryside because there is nothing risky in that direction team will insert explosives into the leg that points in the direction in which they need the tower to fall completely destroying this leg first will force the tower to begin toppling along the correct trajectory milliseconds later explosives will go off on both of the other two legs simultaneously these legs will only have Dynamite inserted into one side the side that faces the first leg and the direction in which the tower is being manipulated into falling the unexploded side of those two legs will then act as a hinge further ensuring the crumbling Tower remains on the correct bearing once the tower starts to come down at its base more explosives will go off 100 meters up the tower but this time on the side facing the highway that should force the top 70 meters of the tower to fall back on itself reducing the radius of Destruction on the ground and restricting the cleanup site to the smallest possible area the the two parts of the building are going to collapse one above the orders all the volume of material will collapse that direction we have about 200 holes to to load we have about 100 holes on the top at 100 meter 60 all in the legs A and B and we have some holes there remaining on the legs see with the scheduled implosion time drawing of a closer no risks are being taken with the safety of people in the vicinity roads are closed an exclusion Zone set up and a helicopter flies above with a sensing infrared camera to ensure nobody is anywhere near the site this is a huge moment for Etienne will all of his planning pay off will the tower fall in the right direction [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] the tower fell in precisely the direction they wanted the explosives went off at just the right time and the top half of the structure fell back on itself as planned and this Tower is consigned to history [Music] it can take a lot of skill and courage to safely navigate a demolition through its most difficult and dangerous moments and sometimes the most pressurized situations on site aren't because of the risk posed to the people there but because of one wrong move could bring down more buildings than you bargained for in London England downwell Demolition faced that very problem the task was to bring down a large and aging residential block to make way for new homes being built as part of London's ongoing regeneration but that's far from a simple task when some of those u-blocks have already been built just a few meters away extremely complex demolition had three main phases stage one divide and conquer Chomp straight through the middle of the block and turn one building into two stage two attack the segment furthest away from the surrounding properties and begin chewing away at The Brick from left to right the teams closing in on stage three of the job literally make or break removing the top floor is the critical part if the remainder of the building fell at its current height it would easily reach the surrounding buildings in order to bring the building into the safety zone the team needs to carefully remove the top floor reducing the radius of Destruction once the remaining segment is no longer tall enough to topple onto the Flats next door they're home and dry but accidentally bashing the teetering structure the wrong way or misreading the direction it might fall before they've got it low enough and in a split second one demolition could turn into two we've got a high reach taking down the Walls we've got two men up there doing some hand removal in case anything could fall the wrong way working at height is not easy and to make matters worse the machine has limited space to operate in unlike before the demolition team must now reach up and over the building which has its own complications he hasn't got complete Vision that's why we've got the two men up on the scaffold to bank him in because you can't see the scaffold at the other side if he were to go too far down he could pull the scaffold in with the bricks that's why we've really got to be careful it's not only the Flats next door they're at risk now but the safety of everyone involved one bit of brick goes it could be the whole wall and then we're talking major damage to Next Door every swing of the Long Ridge removes more and more of the building but in doing so also renders it much less stable it won't be long until the top floor Falls but in which direction foreign [Applause] they've nailed it the floor comes crashing down with no problems at all they're no longer in the danger zone and the lower floors can be brought down with less worry on accidentally demolishing anything they shouldn't [Music] whether expertly bringing something down as carefully as that or blowing it to Smithereens you don't have to be a demolition junkie like me to know that this is a very messy game smashing pulverizing if you're lucky and floating will always send debris flying able to manage it properly or misjudge its effects and the consequences can be deadly on a building bit by bit allows a certain level of control but when you were blowing up a concrete tail block you need to ensure that building is going nowhere but straight down and that was the scenario facing the demolition team behind a large implosion job in MO France if imploding one building wasn't enough they had Double the Trouble to make way for new more modern housing these two 16-story tower blocks needed to be brought down the team had decided that implosion was the way to go in a built-up part of town these towers were surrounded by residential and public buildings including a school so sending chunks of concrete and clouds of toxic dust into the surrounding area really wasn't an option but these guys had an ingenious plan up their sleeve Jeremy dukano is the foreman on site and has played a key part in the extensive planning and preparation the projection of debris is a big problem because of the other buildings surrounding the demolition it can be it can be very dangerous if you have a lot of projection could collapse other buildings it's a big problem for us so we try to reduce the risk by putting some protection around the walls of the building being demolished white fabric and wire fence is wrapped around the levels of the buildings that will have explosives planted in them this is designed to trap the concrete keeping it from projecting too far but with exploding concrete comes another major public safety risk dust [Music] inhaling dust in large quantities can be extremely dangerous and dust clouds don't get much larger than when not just one but two buildings implode within seconds of each other Jeremy and his team have come up with an ingenious way to keep the dust at Bay and if it works it's going to cause a big splash to reduce the dust to help reduce the Dust We have set up more explosive charges underneath a number of swimming pools filled with water the principle behind this idea is to project water up around the building during the implosion to help suppress the amount of dust that escapes the area the best defense against dust is water and on this job they've got a lot of it over a hundred pools per building laid both inside and out and equipped with their own mini explosive the charges in the pools will be set to explode a second before the buildings do the plan being to project water upwards to catch the oncoming dust before it can go anywhere but in the unpredictable world of demolition things don't always go to plan even if they get the pinpoint timing of all of that right A change in wind direction on the day could see the water blowing in the opposite direction and dust clouds filling the neighborhood it's a perfect day for blowing up over 100 paddling pools fire engines and security teams are on standby X occlusion zones have been set up and explosives directed in Jerome pecan Waits nervously for the countdown to implosion the preparation has gone well everything is ready now for the blast and we're just waiting to be told we can start and we are under a lot of pressure I hope it turns out okay the Moment of Truth has arrived [Music] thank you incredible the inside walls of building one go first with the charges detonating in one second intervals throughout the structure forcing the whole building into a precise linear drop [Music] the pulls jet up in a straight line catching and sucking back down a huge amount of dust and reducing the cloud that's expelled significantly then an exact four seconds later building two goes the fabric barriers were able to block the projection of concrete which kept every part of this building well within the exclusion Zone [Music] now that is what I call a pool party we've seen demolitions that throw off extremely difficult and dangerous situations and we've witnessed others that have to contend with large amounts of debris and major disruption to the local area but every now and then a project comes along that has all that and more enter the OK Allen bridge in Louisiana America Louisiana has hundreds of rivers running through it so bridges are the backbone of the state's infrastructure it's vital that when a bridge is no longer fit for purpose it's taken down and replaced straight away and next in line for the chop was the okay Allen Bridge completed in 1936 to provide a critical link between Alexandra and neighboring Pineville the bridge was in a state of disrepair are no longer safe for the thousands of people crossing at each day there was only one way to bring this bad boy down dynamite and lots of it the disruption caused by the closure of this vital link over the Red River to neighboring Pineville would have been catastrophic to the flow of the local highways so the OK Allen's replacement was built before it closed just meters away and all traffic is now diverted across the new Curtis common Bridge but that causes a major headache for our Demolition and their explosives experts a massive steel structure like this Old Bridge without firing huge chunks of Twisted Metal out over the surrounding area and risk bringing down the brand new bridge as well you can't just strap Dynamite to the bridge and hope for the best months of preparation went into getting this bridge ready for demolition [Music] clay brister with a refuge Parish Sheriff's Office commander of the bomb Tech unit we're using shape charges it's directional is designed to cut the steel in a precise location and as long as everything goes according to plan everything should be cut clean and the bridge should drop without a whole lot of incident should anything go wrong such as timing or anything like that then that's a whole different ball game there's a whole lot of variables that come into play when you're trying to time several Charges going off [Music] timing on this implosion is critical blow the charges at exactly the same moment and the combined shock wave could damage the new bridge too far apart and the bridge could fall the wrong way the variables that could affect this implosion are staggering despite all the potential problems it's now or never for this demolition the charges had been painstakingly placed triple checked and detonators attached everyone begins to move into position so many people are out here ready to witness this historic event this moment in history the traffic has been halted on the new bridge as congestion begins to build it's time to level the OK Allen so things can get moving again quickly the one minute horn blows there's no turning back now all the team can do is look on and hope that one Split Second in time isn't going to result in months of repair work to the new bridge I'm feeling just really really anxious that okay Allen trust Bridge has been an icon for this area for so many years that's going to be gone within a matter of milliseconds is it boom time any second now the charges should go off and consign this bridge to the history books [Music] the bridge drops and at first glance that looks like a textbook implosion undetectable to the human eye the charges went off within milliseconds of each other as planned and the bridge came down beautifully that was one of the best things coolest things I've seen in a long time and I'm 77 years old it was a great day big piece of History gone the bridge went just as planned so everything worked out great and uh piece of History it was one of the most fascinating and exciting demolitions I have ever witnessed to be able to pull something like that off without a hitch is a testament to the skills of the expert team in Louisiana and in fact right now all over the world similar people and navigating their way through dangerous complex and captivating demolitions and thankfully it's my job to find them see you next time for more on the Demolition Man thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Free Documentary - Engineering

Views: 403,430

Keywords: free documentary, free documentary engineering, engineering, engineering documentary, tech, tech documentary, constructions, constructions documentary, technology documentary, big explosion, big explosions, explosions blasting, huge blasting, Explosive Engineers, explosive engineering, high explosives, demolition expert, demolition building, demolition man series, demolition man, building demolition, building demolition explosion, demolition compilation

Id: 3hyjzHRofWQ

Length: 142min 13sec (8533 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 10 2023