Recent spate of failed implosions raises uncomfortable questions.
To the general public, implosions are the public face of the demolition industry. Although they account for an increasingly small and specialized part of the global demolition workload, the glitz, glamour and razzmatazz that a high-profile blow-down can deliver is unmatched anywhere else in the demolition sector. And if you’re questioning the public fascination with all things explosive, try searching for the term implosion on YouTube!
And here at Demolition News we’re just as guilty – Implosions are a subject that we find equally fascinating. In fact, we have covered literally dozens in the past six months or so in locations from the UK to Brazil, Germany to Canada, Turkey to the US.
But looking back, there has been an alarming number of recent examples of the blaster’s worse nightmare; the stand-up (a name coined because the structure stays vertical, not because it is in any way comedic).
Taken in isolation, most appear to have their own perfectly plausible excuse for failing to fall under the blaster’s spell. However, taken as a representative sample of the blasting sector as a whole, this spate of stand-ups represents a worrying trend; one that could so easily undermine public and client confidence in explosive demolition methods.
Now there is absolutely no suggestion that these recent stand-ups are in any way related; they have occurred on three different continents and no single company – supplier or contractor – has (to the best of our knowledge) been implicated in more than one such incident.
It would be easy, therefore, to lump all these contracts together and file them away in a drawer marked “coincidence” and then keep our collective industry fingers crossed when the next high-profile implosion rolls around.
But is there something more sinister going on here? Could it be that the current credit crunch is having an unseen yet damaging effect upon the credibility of the blasting sector? At a time when all demolition professionals are working on margins narrow enough to pass through the eye of a needle, are some blasters cutting back on expensive explosives and detonation cord to squeeze a few more bucks out of each job?
Faced with a tower block of, say, 20 storeys in height, a professional and security-minded blaster will typically rig several floors and use a primary and a secondary (failsafe) circuit to ensure that each detonator is hit at least once to ensure a complete and thorough blast.
Removing a few floors’ worth of charges in the hope of gravitational intervention and replacing the det’ cord that makes up the secondary circuit with crossed fingers might save the blasting company tens of thousands of dollars.
Demolition contractors have risked asbestos and waste disposal-related prosecutions for less over the years. Unlike a stand-up show with Peter Kay, the situation is no laughing matter.
