Well the explosive demolition industry is no different, and over the years there has always been a healthy competition for, and conflicting claims to, World Records. Occasionally these quests for recognition have been known to get a little trivial (Most people watching an implosion from a public viewing area? Largest post-tensioned, reinforced concrete structure in North America? Tallest building in the Caribbean?)
Monumental achievements in Barbados aside, implosionworld.com recognizes the following projects as holding the current World Record in specific major categories. Please note that we have intentionally withheld the names of specific blasters and contracting companies. It is generally recognized that, price and logistics being equal, several of the industry’s top firms are capable of performing any of these projects (in fact, five different entities currently hold these records). In addition, if you’re really intent on associating these events with blasters, most can be found in other areas of this website and others if you snoop around enough.
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LARGEST EXPLOSIVELY-DEMOLISHED BUILDING Sears Merchandise Center Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
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This impressive structure was built by an army of 2,000 laborers in 1918 and opened to the public in 1919. For seven decades it served as the centerpiece of Northeast Philadelphia before finally succumbing to 12,000 pounds of explosives in 1994. At 2.7 million
square feet of floor space, the Sears Merchandise Center has staved
off numerous illegitimate claims to this record, most notably the
Hudson’s building in Detroit (2.2 million sq. ft.) and several
'large-but-hollow' structures including the Carburendum Building
in Niagara Falls and the Kingdome in Seattle. Although the felling
of these latter buildings presented their own unique challenges,
each fell well short of the actual blasting footage necessary to
compete for this record. |
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TALLEST
EXPLOSIVELY-DEMOLISHED BUILDING
Hudson’s Department Store Detroit, Michigan, USA |
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At
first, protesters objected loudly to the razing of this 26-story,
439-foot tall structure located in the heart of Detroit’s
commercial district. But years of neglect and decay precluded
an economically viable alternative, and the building was brought
down in 1998.
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TALLEST
FREE-STANDING STRUCTURE
Matla Nuclear Power Station Smokestack Johannesburg, South Africa |
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After an interior portion of this 906-foot concrete stack collapsed during construction (killing 4 workers), blasting specialists were rushed to the scene to explosively fell the remainder of the structure. To the blaster’s surprise, the concrete was so inferior that the massive stack ‘telescoped’ straight down instead of laying out into a prepared trench as anticipated. Nonetheless,
the endeavor was a success, and has held this record since 1982. |
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TALLEST
EXPLOSIVELY DEMOLISHED STRUCTURE
CBC Transmission Tower Quebec, Canada |
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Many
industry experts feel that this blast holds several legitimate records,
including World’s
Most Peculiar Demolition Scenario.
In April 2001, a Canadian pilot flying in a dense fog crashed his
single-engine Cessna straight into a 1,217-foot tall TV transmission
tower… so straight, in fact, that his plane remained stuck
like a dart in the top of the tower. Demolition experts were called
in to recover the wreckage by felling the structure with explosives,
and set a new height record in the process.
(Note: Transmission-tower
demolitions are placed in a separate category because they are
not ‘free-standing.’ Support wires attached to various
points on the tower remain connected to the ground throughout
the demolition process, thereby maintaining an element of physical
control notably dissimilar to other types of explosive demolition
projects) |
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LONGEST
EXPLOSIVELY DEMOLISHED STRUCTURE
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| Several blasting firms have laid claim to demolishing 2,800+ foot bridges, but it always seems to turn out that the structure was either blasted in phases or that approach lanes and/or conventionally-demolished sections were factored into the total. Until an actual record can be verified, this record remains unknown. |
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MOST
STRUCTURES DEMOLISHED AT ONCE
(SHARED BY TWO PROJECTS) |
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Stelco
Steel Plant
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada |
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This 1997 blast was the centerpiece of a major plant upgrade and involved the simultaneous demolition of 20 structures including warehouses, storage sheds and smokestacks. The tricky part; all of the structures were constructed of steel, which is generally considered more difficult to work with than reinforced concrete. |
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Bow
Valley Medical Center
Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
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Thirteen months after the Hamilton project, a separate team of explosives experts performed an equally ambitious 20-building undertaking at one of Calgary’s most historic institutions. There were significant differences between the two events; whereas the Stelco blast involved steel structures in a remote industrial environment, Bow Valley involved taller concrete structures nestled in a dense residential neighborhood. Overall, Bow Valley seemed to take the edge in ‘difficulty’ due to the added burden of intense pre-blast publicity that eventually required the management of tens of thousands of sentimental spectators (at one point the blast was delayed 20 minutes while several hot-air balloons violated air-space restrictions and swept in low over the complex). |
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OLDEST
ITEM EXPLOSIVELY DEMOLISHED
The Great Buddas of Bamiyan Central Bamiyan Province, Afghanistan |
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This record was ignominiously set in March 2001 when, in an attempt to destroy all religious monuments seen to compete with Islam, Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban ordered explosives experts to demolish two of the world’s largest standing Buddas. The historical statues, rising 175 and 120 feet respectively, had been hewn out of sandstone cliffs and dated back to the age of Christ. The explosive demolition was sharply criticized by leaders around the world, and many others have since expressed grief at the loss of what the BBC called “one of Asia’s greatest archeological treasures.” |
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