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In the controlled demolition industry, building implosion is the strategic placing of explosive material and timing of its detonation so that a structure collapses on itself in a matter of seconds, minimizing the physical damage to its immediate surroundings. Despite its terminology, building implosion also includes the controlled demolition of other structures, like bridges, smokestacks, towers, and tunnels. This is typically done to save time and money of what would otherwise be an extensive demolition process with construction equipment, as well as to reduce construction workers exposure to infrastructure that is in severe disrepair.
Building implosion, which reduces to seconds a process which could take months or years to achieve by other methods, typically occurs in urban areas[citation needed] and often involves large landmark structures.
The actual use of the term "implosion" to refer to the destruction of a building is a misnomer. This had been stated of the destruction of 1515 Tower in West Palm Beach, Florida. "What happens is, you use explosive materials in critical structural connections to allow gravity to bring it down."[1]
The term "implosion" was coined by my grandmother back in, I guess, the '60s. It's a more descriptive way to explain what we do than "explosion". There are a series of small explosions, but the building itself isn't erupting outward. It's actually being pulled in on top of itself. What we're really doing is removing specific support columns within the structure and then cajoling the building in one direction or another, or straight down.
The term building implosion can be misleading to a layperson: The technique is not a true implosion phenomenon. A true implosion usually involves a difference between internal (lower) and external (higher) pressure, or inward and outward forces, that is so large that the structure collapses inward into itself.[citation needed]
In contrast, building implosion techniques do not rely on the difference between internal and external pressure to collapse a structure. Instead, the goal is to induce a progressive collapse by weakening or removing critical supports; therefore, the building can no longer withstand gravity loads and will fail under its own weight.[citation needed]
Numerous small explosives, strategically placed within the structure, are used to catalyze the collapse. Nitroglycerin, dynamite, or other explosives are used to shatter reinforced concrete supports. Linear shaped charges are used to sever steel supports. These explosives are progressively detonated on supports throughout the structure. Then, explosives on the lower floors initiate the controlled collapse.[citation needed]
A simple structure like a chimney can be prepared for demolition in less than a day. Larger or more complex structures can take up to six months of preparation to remove internal walls and wrap columns with fabric and fencing before firing the explosives.[citation needed]
One of the earliest documented attempts at building implosion was the 1773 razing of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Waterford, Ireland with 150lb (68.04kg; 10.71st) of gunpowder, a huge amount of explosives at the time. The use of low velocity explosive produced a deafening explosion that instantly reduced the building to rubble.[3]
The late 19th century saw the erection of—and ultimately the need to demolish—the first skyscrapers, which had more complicated structures, allowing greater heights. This led to other considerations in the explosive demolition of buildings, such as worker and spectator safety and limiting collateral damage. Benefiting from the availability of dynamite, a high-velocity explosive based on a stabilized form of nitroglycerine, and borrowing from techniques used in rock-blasting, such as staggered detonation of several small charges, the process of building implosion gradually became more efficient.[citation needed]
Following World War II, European demolition experts, faced with huge reconstruction projects in dense urban areas, gathered practical knowledge and experience for bringing down large structures without harming adjacent properties.[4] This led to the emergence of a demolition industry that grew and matured during the latter half of the twentieth century. At the same time, the development of more efficient high-velocity explosives, such as RDX, and non-electrical firing systems combined to make this a period of time in which the building implosion technique was extensively used.[citation needed]
Meanwhile, public interest in the spectacle of controlled building explosion also grew. The October 1994 demolition of the Sears Merchandise Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania drew a cheering crowd of 50,000, as well as protesters, bands, and street vendors selling building implosion memorabilia.[citation needed] Evolution in the mastery of controlled demolition led to the world record[4] demolition of the Seattle Kingdome on March 26, 2000.[5]
In 1997, the Royal Canberra Hospital in Canberra, Australia, was demolished. The main building did not fully disintegrate and had to be manually demolished. The explosion during the initial demolition attempt was not contained on the site and large pieces of debris were projected towards spectators 500m (546.81yd) away, in a location considered safe for viewing. A twelve-year-old girl was killed instantly, and nine others were injured. Large fragments of masonry and metal were found 650m (710.85yd) from the demolition site.[6]
On February 23, 2007 an unfinished Intel building known as the Intel Shell was imploded in Austin, Texas, which was halted in April 2001.[7]
On December 13, 2009, an unfinished 31-story condominium tower, known as the Ocean Tower, was imploded in South Padre Island, Texas. Construction on the new tower had begun in 2006, but it had been sinking unevenly during construction, which halted in 2008, and could not be saved. It is believed to be one of the tallest reinforced concrete structures ever imploded.[8]
Building implosion has been successfully used at Department of Energy sites such as the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina and the Hanford Site in Washington. The SRS 185-3K or "K" Area Cooling Tower, built in 1992 to cool the water from the K Reactor, was no longer needed when the Cold War ended and was safely demolished by explosive demolition on May 25, 2010.[9]
The Hanford Site Buildings 337, 337B, and the 309 Exhaust Stack, built in the early 1970s and vacated in the mid-2000s due to deteriorating physical condition, were safely razed by explosive demolition on October 9, 2010.[10]
Implosion is the collapse of an object into itself from a pressure differential or gravitational force. The opposite of explosion, implosion reduces the volume occupied and concentrates matter and energy. Implosion involves a difference between internal (lower) and external (higher) pressure, or inward and outward forces, that is so large that the structure collapses inward into itself, or into the space it occupied if it is not a completely solid object. Examples of implosion include a submarine being crushed by hydrostatic pressure and the collapse of a star under its own gravitational pressure.
A controlled explosion is the deliberate detonation of an explosive, generally as a means of demolishing a building or destroying a second improvised or manufactured explosive device.
The Genesee Towers was the tallest building in Flint, Michigan, United States. It was demolished on December 22, 2013 after a period of inactivity and loss of occupancy.
Inverkip power station was an oil-fired power station on the Inverclyde coast, Firth of Clyde, west coast of Scotland. It was closer to Wemyss Bay than Inverkip, and dominated the local area with its 236 m (774 ft) chimney, the third tallest chimney in the UK and Scotland's tallest free-standing structure. In common with other power stations in Scotland it lacked cooling towers; instead, sea water was used as a coolant. The station consisted of three generating units with a combined total rating of 2028 megawatts (MW).
Didcot power station is an active natural gas power plant that supplies the National Grid. A combined coal and oil power plant, Didcot A, was the first station on the site, which opened in 1970 and was demolished between 2014 and 2020. The power station is situated in Sutton Courtenay, near Didcot in Oxfordshire, England. Didcot OCGT is a gas-oil power plant, originally part of Didcot A and now independent. It continues to provide emergency backup power for the National Grid.
The J. L. Hudson Building ("Hudson's") was a department store located at 1206 Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit, Michigan. It was constructed beginning in 1911, with additions throughout the years, before being "completed" in 1946, and named after the company's founder, Joseph Lowthian Hudson. Hudson's first building on the site opened in 1891 but was demolished in 1923 for a new structure. It was the flagship store for the Hudson's chain. The building was demolished in a controlled demolition on October 24, 1998, and at the time it was the tallest building ever imploded.
Some conspiracy theories contend that the collapse of the World Trade Center was caused not solely by the airliner crash damage that occurred as part of the September 11 attacks and the resulting fire damage but also by explosives installed in the buildings in advance. Controlled demolition theories make up a major component of 9/11 conspiracy theories.
Docusign Tower, previously the Wells Fargo Center, is a skyscraper in Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington. Originally named First Interstate Center when completed in 1983, the 47-story, 574-foot (175 m) tower is now the ninth-tallest building in the city, and has 24 elevators and 941,000 square feet (87,400 m2) of rentable space. The design work was done by The McKinley Architects, and it is owned by Chicago-based EQ Office.
Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI) is a controlled demolition firm headquartered in Phoenix, Maryland. The firm was founded by Jack Loizeaux who used dynamite to remove tree stumps in the Baltimore, Maryland area, and moved on to using explosives to take down chimneys, overpasses and small buildings in the 1940s. The company has demolished several notable buildings by implosion, including the Gettysburg National Tower, the Seattle Kingdome, and the uncollapsed portion of the Champlain Towers South condominium.
Matla Power Station in Mpumalanga, South Africa, is a coal-fired power plant operated by Eskom and consuming the output from the Matla coal mine.
1515 Tower was a former residential high-rise in West Palm Beach, Florida. Completed in 1974, it was the second tallest building in West Palm Beach with 30 stories and rising 98 metres (322 ft). 1515 Tower was heavily damaged during Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Jeanne in 2004 and was subsequently vacated. The facade was heavily damaged as a result of the storms, and on August 1, 2006, the city issued a demolition order. The building was demolished by use of explosives, colloquially called implosion, on Sunday, February 14, 2010. 1515 Tower was the third tallest building in the United States to be imploded. There have been several proposals for a new building at the site at 1515 South Flagler Drive.
The implosion of Radio Network House in 2012 was the first implosion used in New Zealand to demolish a building, and was a "test case" for the potential to use such a demolition method on similar buildings in Christchurch Central City that had been damaged in the 2011 earthquake. Like most other large buildings in central Christchurch, Radio Network House was damaged beyond repair in the 2011 earthquake, and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) added it to the demolition list in August 2011. In July 2012, it was announced that the building was going to be imploded, involving a specialist company from the United States with considerable experience in this type of work.
Ocean Tower SPI was an unfinished, 31-story condominium in South Padre Island, Cameron County, Texas, United States, that was imploded when it was deemed unsafe to remain standing. Construction was halted in May 2008 when cracks formed in the building's supporting columns, and investigations revealed that the core of the skyscraper had sunk by more than 14 inches (360 mm). Though the developers initially vowed to fix the problem, studies discovered that repairs would have been too expensive, and plans for its demolition were announced in September 2009. At the time of its controlled implosion in December 2009 the building weighed 55,000 short tons (50,000 t), and it was the tallest reinforced concrete structure to be demolished in that way. It was nicknamed "Faulty Towers" and "The Leaning Tower of South Padre Island".
Demolition is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for reuse purposes.
The Landmark Tower was a 30-story skyscraper located at 200 West 7th Street in Downtown Fort Worth, Texas. Designed by Fort Worth architecture firm Preston M. Geren & Associates, Landmark Tower was the tallest building in the city from its opening in 1957 until the completion of the Fort Worth National Bank Tower in 1974. After being abandoned in 1990, the tower stood vacant for more than 15 years until it was demolished in 2006. It is one of the tallest buildings ever to be demolished.
The Christchurch Central Police Station was the former headquarters of the Canterbury Police District. Once the tallest building in Christchurch, New Zealand, it was damaged in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and demolished by implosion on 31 May 2015.
The Capital Plaza Office Tower was a 338-foot tall, 28-story office skyscraper located at 500 Mero Street in Frankfort, Kentucky. It was the tallest building in Frankfort and the 11th tallest building in the state of Kentucky.
The Apex Tower and Ceyane Tower, colloquially referred to as the Noida Supertech Twin Towers, were incomplete residential buildings in Sector-93A, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. The towers were part of real estate company Supertech Limited's Emerald Court residential complex. The Supreme Court of India upheld the original decision by the Allahabad High Court and ordered the buildings' demolition on 28 August 2022. They were the tallest structures in India to be voluntarily demolished.
↑ Grogan, Dick (1997-06-11). "Pillars of the church may save the nave". Home News. The Irish Times (Cityed.). p.2.
1 2 Blanchard, Brent (February 2002). "A History of Explosive Demolition in America". Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Explosives and Blasting Technique. International Society of Explosives Engineers. pp.27–44. ISSN0732-619X.
↑ Madden, Shane G. (1999). "General Chronology and Overview". The Bender Coronial Decision. ACT Magistrates Court and Tribunals (Coroner's Court). Archived from the original on 2009-06-09. Retrieved 2007-03-07.
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