Transmitter tower is certainly tall…but just how tall?
One of the often unseen foibles of the demolition industry is its occasional indulgence in “mine’s bigger than yours” boasting and ego-stroking. Companies running high reach excavators are always keen to go that little nit higher than their closest competitor; while in the explosive sector everyone likes to think they’ve done the biggest, widest or tallest.
So when we received news that Controlled Demolition, Inc (CDI) was claiming a new world record for the “Tallest Structure Ever To Be Demolished Using Explosives”, we felt obliged to dig just a wee bit deeper. According to the company’s YouTube channel, the company has just completed the successful explosives felling of the tallest structure on the African Continent – the 1,410-foot, 2-inch tall (429 metre), structural steel Omega Radio Transmitter Tower in Paynesville, Liberia.
But a quick check of the Structurae International Database of Structures suggests that the tower measured 1,370 feet (417 metres) tall when it was measured.
Certainly the video (below) shows that the tower is seriously tall. But unless there has been some large-scale soil erosion that has swept away 12 metres of soil in the past 34 years, we’re not quite convinced it’s a new world record.
