21.10.2019

Explosive demolition for New Orleans cranes

The two damaged cranes left standing after the Hard Rock hotel building collapse in New Orleans were brought down yesterday with explosives charges.

The move came after a week or more of consideration on the safest way to dismantle them after they had been badly damaged by the collapse of the building on Saturday the 12th October. The challenges of dismantling them were also compounded by the precarious state/instability of the of the building.
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The charges go off

It was therefore decided that bringing them down with demolition explosives was the safest method. The demolition contractor D.H Griffin Wrecking was called in to carry out the job, which was originally scheduled for Friday. However high winds forced a delay, and it finally went ahead yesterday after police set up temporary evacuation zones during the demolition process. The charges appeared to have been placed on the pendant attachment points for the jib and the counter jib as well as base of the towers

New Orleans Fire Chief Tim McConnell said: “The cranes were more damaged than we thought, requiring a change in methodology to bring them down safely.”
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One of the cranes was left only partly demolished

The explosions brought the most damaged of the two cranes down in the street, while the other one remained upright thanks to its tower having more support from the building’s lift shaft. The video below shows what happened.