With the dust settled on yesterday’s successful Scottish blast, more footage has emerged.
Although we are always keen to bring you footage of controlled explosive demolition first, it is a general rule that the better footage follows on a day or two later when the media professionals have had a chance to weave their magic.
So we now have an opportunity to take another look at yesterday’s triple tower block blast, carried out in near Arctic conditions by Scottish master blasters Safedem.
What these films fail to show, however, are the specific challenges facing William Sinclair and his team. “The tower blocks were built on a cliff with the electrified west coast main line at the base of the cliff to the north, and just 3 metres from Belville Street itself to the south. This was, perhaps, our tightest blowdowns to date. The blocks had been built on an extreme slope which resulted in the building being 21 storeys high on the north end of the building and 17 storeys high on the south of the structure,” Sinclair explains. “The tight landing area was a challenge, but the 50metre cliff required us to defy gravity and master the collapse mechanism in order to contain the debris at the top of the cliff. The operation took place overnight as the works had to be done under rail possession due to the proximity of the railway line at the base of the cliff. The overnight evacuation saw over 250 households relocated in nearby hotels, a massive logistical operation conducted and delivered ahead of schedule by Safedem’s in house Community Liaison Team. The exclusion zone that was in force for 18 hours was manned by sentries and police in freezing conditions. The evacuation team, sentries and police were the undoubted heroes of the operation – a long shift in arctic conditions was delivered professionally making this challenging project an all round success.”
