on the Gulf of Mexico a demo team chases
a new world record we can not take any
chances with stop a hurricane proof
tower stands in their way
we don't have a handle on the structure
we have no way to get the explosives in
no place to put the building it's gonna
be a problem
three invincible corpse multi-million
dollar neighbors we're going way off the
book with us it could be a record
shattering drop a world-class disaster
[Music]
[Music]
South Padre Island Texas nearly a
million people hit these beaches every
year more and more want to stay it may
be a developer's dream but the race to
build comes at a price
in this construction frenzy one site
sits abandoned this is ocean tower
condemned before it was even completed
it was built on a defective foundation
and is sinking into the sand it's a 77
million dollar mistake
hundreds of metal Shores hold the
building up columns crack under the
weight as the tower sinks into the sand
he tilts to the north threatening homes
just 46 meters away
Ocean Tower must be demolished
controlled demolition Incorporated has
accepted this challenge
and all the years I've been working with
CDI all over the world I've never seen a
structure this well reinforced this well
built it could be record-breaking a
reinforced concrete structure this high
has never been imploded
we've got a 33 story traditionally
reinforced tower that rises above a
parking garage the tower itself has got
one massively reinforced elevator core
and it's got two stairwells that are
separately reinforced the towers height
is a demolition nightmare
there are mansions to the north a
highway to the west and park facilities
to the south
mark Louisa CGI's demolition designer
must drop this 116 meter tower to the
east but he faces a major problem even
here the tower is 30 meters too long to
land without causing damage if it comes
down at its full height it will crush
these federally protected dunes or the
expensive homes right next to them to
stay in the drop zone mark needs to
shorten the tower by breaking its spine
as it falls powerful weather systems are
a fact of life here
the structure was engineered to survive
hurricane-force winds its cores are
nearly seven times thicker than an
average residential buildings if we
can't control the elevator shaft we
can't control the building and we don't
have that much room to work with the
property line to the north lies just
three and a half meters away losing
control is not an option
normally this family business from
Phoenix Maryland implodes structures
because they've passed their product
Oshin tower is the newest high-rise CDI
has ever dealt with this time mark has
to push demolition engineering to its
limits first we're going to straighten
the tower because there's a bit of a
tilt about four and a half inches to the
north side so shortening we're going to
straighten the tower up in the delay
sequence then we're going to tilt the
tower to the east and as the tower tilts
we're going to cut it at different level
so as it comes over and collapses the
debris pretty much stays within the
original footprint of the garage the
first step mark needs to figure out how
much rebar reinforces the tower spine
these core walls are up to nine and a
half meters long and more than
three-quarters of a metre theft
a skid steer arrives to open the month
but the skid-steer can't even penetrate
the concrete look at it don't look good
tom and you're not even to the rebar yet
not yet look how hard that is Plan B
Plan P load and shoot the question is
congratula hole in it we would have to
find out the rebar configuration remains
a mystery higher up a salvage crew
strips ocean towers riches these sweets
are almost complete plumbing installed
bathrooms tiled and walls ready for
paint
brand new materials built to last for
decades ripped out before their top
metal Shores installed to take stress
off the failing columns are
exceptionally valuable these are
salvageable you know there's a market
for these we can probably sell them for
three to four hundred dollars apiece
he'll recycle more than 66-thousand tons
of material 85% of what went into the
building
on the east side of the tower the
parking garage deals mark another big
challenge most of it sits right where he
needs to land the tower
but he's not sure if he should remove it
it's a post tension structure something
the crew doesn't usually come up against
post tension beams are made of concrete
but they're also filled with dozens of
cables these are pulled tight and then
secured with metal anchors at both ends
this makes the beam stronger perfect for
a car garage but potentially disastrous
for CDI you've got beams here that have
almost 2,000 Kip's that's 2,000 times a
thousand pounds tensile strength if we
drop the structure on that rubber band
that has stretched that tight and it
snaps
where does it go thousands of one and a
half kilo anchors could terrorize the
neighborhood
some of these post-tension beams also
run under the faulty tower demolishing
the garage before shott day could send
the building into a freefall at that
point the tower would just inexorably
move there's no stopping it mark faces a
difficult choice leave the garage intact
and risk anchors flying or demolish it
and hope the tower doesn't come down
early he needs to learn more about the
garage before he makes the call back in
the tower Kraig keys and Tom doubt try
to penetrate the course they need to
drill past the concrete to the rebar
but like the skid-steer they can't seem
to find a way through
[Applause]
this is where we try to get either five
holes inside the box you see how much we
have to move the holes that's you know
for the burn that's alright but I'd
really like to see this all the way
through Tom's disappointed so we'd be
lucky to get one all the way through yep
even inch and a half and that two inch
hole
this is bad news
does it get better as we go up the Coors
seem impenetrable
but they must be broken or the tower
will overshoot the drop zone it's an
expensive mistake I have a federal park
I've got protected dunes with all that
planning out there that cost hundreds of
thousand dollars to replace mark must
figure out a way to avoid this eco
disaster or the aftermath will cost him
big time
[Music]
Marc needs to find a way through Ocean
Towers cause where this demolition is
destined to fail
the only time we've run up against
concrete this hard and reinforcing that
as this massive in a structure is a
nuclear construction where we're dealing
with structures that are no more than
three or four storeys tall
here we're dealing with a structure
that's 33 stories tall the reason this
monster tower sits in a hurricane zone
winds here can reach more than 218
kilometers an hour so the high-rise is
designed to resist annihilation
now machines are failing to penetrate
its hurricane-proof cores Marx never had
this problem before he calls in his
brother Doug I really needed his
experience in his expertise he has far
more experience blasting heavily
reinforced concrete than I they consider
an unprecedented plan attack the towers
cores with explosives before shot day
normally they use test blasts to see how
a structure will react to this type of
demolition but they've never tried to
reduce the strength of a building with
explosives before the implosion until
now we determined that it would be best
to modify the cores themselves by pre
blasting holes so essentially leaving
the cores standing up on legs much more
efficient to deal with that with
explosives
for the first time ever CD I will use
explosives to attack a structure before
shot day
[Music]
[Music]
meanwhile mark gets a break he discovers
that post-tension beams at the east end
of the parking garage
do not run underneath the tower
[Music]
this means it should be safe to demolish
the part that sits in the drop zone
[Music]
mark assigns Raisa kasi
post-tensioning is about the hardest
thing erect convention that tension is
about two million pounds on every one of
those little cables
we go in the multiprocessor cracks the
concrete and loosens the concrete
once it goes slack its lost tension and
then we can chew in it and it may come
down
[Music]
the excavator has to avoid the protected
dunes to the east so the operator works
from the south side
he must pulverize almost 2,000 square
meters of the garage
[Music]
as he moves in he gets closer to these
damaged columns and the tower
[Music]
Doug and Tom get ready to pre blast the
course they've never done this before so
they worry about flying debris you just
wondering for the first shot as this
could of with neighbors you think we'd
be better off to stand downstairs that's
why they load two walls with different
amounts of dynamite we're just kind of
playing blind right now until we see the
results of this usually you can bless
country with a half a pound per cubic
yard some of these we probably have 10
pounds to the cubic yard you can't use
the rule of thumb loading densities
we're going way off the book with us
here's the plan
they've loaded dynamite in a series of
circles each larger than the last
explosives closest to the center will go
off first then the explosions will
radiate out this should shatter the
concrete and leave two legs dug them in
a red
[Music]
can you say anything oh we're through oh
yeah you're clear Victor come one up see
that's beautiful it is we're gonna need
a couple of brooms and a couple of
shovels to clean up this stairwell good
here's your burn both shots blasted
through the concrete there's fine here
done
there are yep one two three four and
five but smaller quantities of dynamite
loaded into more holes works best you
don't need to muscle concrete out what
we need to do is rely on our sequential
pattern on how we initiate the delays
good news for the loaders bad news for
the struggling drillers they'll have to
muscle even more holes into the cores if
you look straight in there I don't know
how they got a hole at all and there's
another serious concern we took their
cover down
debris rip through the protective
covering and shattered ocean towers
triple pane windows we've blasted the
whole I mean that's great it did a fine
job but the byproduct wasn't acceptable
that was too much fun the neighbors are
a stone's throw away Doug will have to
fine-tune the pre blasting plan
things are getting ugly in the parking
garage
I got called with one of my employees so
I'm here to the parking garage saying
that concrete falling off of the floor
slab this is actually one of the pieces
of concrete that are popping out of the
slab you can see where the rebar the
cable are running through the slab this
would probably be very bad if you get
hit on the head with it post tension
cables in the beams are snapping
shattering the concrete
the crew could get their skulls cracked
everyone has to evacuate
and there's another challenge as we
pulverized the building there's still
these chunks left hanging on these
tendons which we call Widow makers
because they could fall down and whack
you in the head and take you up like
Victor's crew raise team can't work in
this dangerous environment if he doesn't
find a way to rip out the widow-makers
you'll have to pull the excavators bring
the project to a halt
we need to separate this from that
before we go that way as as we go this
way it gets really funky I mean one BAE
over from where we're stopping us all
that shoring all those damaged columns
we need to clean this off
it screw it straight through it and
release any pull that this thing has on
that
my first choice would be to let's go
cross the street in that job Lane
I can see if I can cheer mom yeah
next baby
we had that spaghetti mess there without
fucking three men
how long did it take you to swap out hey
totally all right I mean only one way to
find out no I
you know I'd have to get to do with the
man lift and get it but here it's not
fun the operator will try to cut the
widow-makers down with a job link
[Music]
in the tower the crew hammers out a plan
for the course they face a difficult
trade-off smaller quantities of dynamite
spread over a larger area works best but
a larger pre blast area means more
loading holes and usable drill holes are
hard to come by
here's the problem the cores are
reinforced with up to six vertical
layers of rebar
three times the normal amount and the
layers are staggered it's almost
impossible for a driller to get a
straight hole through the rebar is
really beyond anyone's expectations when
you look at the plans initially say why
would anyone put this much rebar in this
structure but there's home
the team clears out some pre blasted
sites
now they can finally see the rebar
pattern ultimately I'm gonna want the
drillers to try to get in here and drill
this way Craig will try and drill holes
between the rebar layers by me drilling
longitudinally through the wall I can
drill three holes and blast just three
holes
compared to blasting 40 holes on the
outside edge there are seven shot floors
this longitudinal drilling could save
the team thousands of holes it's a demo
marathon he must push through almost two
meters of concrete four times the length
of a regular hole
today he's rewarded and went now
surprisingly well
the rebar is spaced far enough apart to
where I could get the longitude holes
into it at least in this wall
the drilling is under control but the
weather is not a violent storm rolls in
Victor before you on it catches the crew
off-guard
yeah that doesn't that look good does
that
Victor can't reach workers exposed to
the elements on an upper floor jesse
mclees rushes up to warn them before the
storms fury really hits Victor we have
stuff coming off the roof of the
building - there's insulation plastic
there's a lot of debris coming off the
roof
[Music]
everyone is evacuated and the day is
lost with more than 2,000 holes still
left to drill
[Music]
more than three weeks pass the crew
finally gets a break in the weather
clear sunny skies it won't last so they
move quickly to drill the upper floors
before the storms return if you just
walk away slowly they'll release and let
you walk let me go real quick when you
go over the edge it stops you from going
over the edge gym master pole works a
half step away from a 60 meter draw he
preps outer columns so the team can load
dynamite his drill weighs 45 kilos 60
miles an hour up here you can't stand on
the edge it'll just take you right off
it's crazy up here
[Applause]
and I've been doing this 10 years and
still a little bit of pee comes out
whenever have to get on the edge like
this the pre blasting and drilling show
mark how strong Ocean Tower is
he worries the three cores won't come
down on shot day
[Music]
the building could shear away from the
hurricane fruit spine
mark has to off his game
for this demolition could turn into a
record-breaking disaster
Doug and Tom are ready to pre blast more
core walls this demo project marks the
first time they've ever used explosives
to reduce a building strength before
shot day so they're still trying to get
the formula down what we're going to do
is adjust the loading density cut the
amount of explosives we're putting down
per hole so we can try to keep the
concrete from flying where it could
impact the adjacent properties they're
loading smaller quantities of dynamite
into more holes so they must also
fine-tune the initiation system for the
475 here you starting at 300 upstairs no
the 475 is going to initiate the cord
we're gonna go electric to 475 to cord
upstairs just electric they work out a
plan Victor are you clear
all right we're good Tom warm up the
machine tell me when you're warmed up 5
4 3 2 1 fire
yes explosives more holes better results
talk about that's the ticket
success the system works
they've mastered the pre blasting but
elsewhere a huge setback
Craig thought he could drill Ocean
Towers Coors longitudinal but after
weeks of work he fails to sink the
required holes this is a lot of rebar
this wall was not supposed to be it's so
bad that he can't get a single
longitudinal hole into the elevator
shaft the cores defy one of Sidi eyes
best I'm afraid we're resigned to spot
drilling the elevator shaft just because
it's steel is too tight he's not gonna
be able to get a hole in their CD eyes
demolition designer must up his strategy
mark also worries that the rebar dent
scores will defy him on shot day he
decides that a complex network of high
tensile steel may do the trick
mark came up with the cabling plan gave
us the drawings emailed him last night
so now I have to go you know discuss it
in principle in the building grab
they're down we're gonna grab here down
and we're gonna grab there down but the
crew have never seen anything like this
852 meters of cable connecting cores and
columns to one another on five of the
towers floors the cable is three times
stronger than the kind they normally use
because it's never had to work this hard
the cables connect the elevator cord
into stair cores and then into the
columns out in the direction of fall as
we move through the building those
cables will sequentially go into tension
although many that will pull the power
over toward the Gulf of Mexico
Craig hustles to finish the extra work
it's from ceiling to floor we just try
to grab the top of the column and the
bottom of the column through the floor
slabs so the floor slabs helps and
nothing slides up and down the columns
as the building's moving what we have
for tools is just a chain come along and
a sledgehammer the Funday the cable
right there the cabling is done Tom
starts to load dynamite into the cores
he doesn't usually work with a tape
measure on most demo sites CDI uses bags
filled with sand to space out dynamite
it's called deck loading and it makes
explosives more efficient but that won't
work in these rebar infested walls if
you're trying to push a bag in and you
catch a piece of that rebar and that bag
bridges you've now lost that hole and
with a structure of this size we don't
want to lose a single hole
the solution air deck loading Tom
calculates the optimal distance between
sticks of dynamite and uses a tape
measure to position the explosives this
way he gets the benefit of deck loading
without the risk
at the base of the tower Doug calculates
another crucial load the column when
welding now is a big controlling column
there are four columns that are probably
the most important in the building that
we have to crack to allow it to bend and
then eliminate completely for each hole
I'll calculate how many cubic yards or
percentage of a cubic yard each hole
takes care of and from what 35 years of
experience I know how much explosive it
takes per cubic yard of this real
brittle high-density concrete bad
weather continues to plague the crew
dangerous winds often confine them to
the lower floors but they can't delay
any more
someone has to load columns on four of
the upper floors
once again it's Jim's lucky day the
height still gut-wrenching
but this time there's no sunshine to
comfort him the change in weather pushes
him to the edge he's got a long way to
go
39 exposed columns still too low
seedy eyes wiring guru arrives on site
and she doesn't catch a break either
every column encored the team is loaded
needs to be wired
Stacy Louisa and her sister Devon are
forced to brave the windy upper floors
I'll lean into it here I'd love to wait
for this storm to pass and be able to do
this tomorrow but unfortunately the
clocks tickin we need to get this done
to that we'll top it out
and the wiring has never been this
complicated the problem is is the
stairwells are sort of a mix and match
between longitudinal drilling and spot
drilling and when wiring them we have to
treat them very differently her crew
must run to initiation lines one for the
regular holes and one for the
longitudinal holes we can't let these
two lines touch they're on two totally
different times if these two lines were
actually to come into contact with each
other basically you could have an entire
core going off either five seconds too
early or five seconds too late which
would be unbelievably bad the towel
would fall uncontrollably putting the
neighbors at risk
so it's a constant challenge to check
double check recheck that these cannot
possibly touch each other what if we put
a big piece on it why take the chance
piece of fabric and just laid it that's
a good we've got to get all these lines
weighted down to my satisfaction really
which is basically weighting it down
every three or four feet it's very
time-consuming
they don't call me the Martha Stewart of
demolition for nothing
crews have finished demolishing the east
side of the parking garage what's left
of the structure is now safe for workers
Victor's crew hustles to make up lost
time
now it's when you need to run
[Music]
upstairs ray checks the team's cabling
job 35,000 pounds is breaking strength
it'll do much more than that
you could pick up a tank with this stuff
well any difficulty at all but will
these cables be enough to pull the
towers course we'll find out firsthand
the mission is to get unprecedented
shots of the implosion of this tower
so what gone ahead and done is planted
12 cameras strategically placed
throughout the tower between the 24th
and the roof all this stuff is going to
two different boxes we got custom-made
iron cages to protect the footage for
the trip down
[Music]
it's shot did Stacy and her crew
finished wiring the tower they've laid
more than four kilometers of detonation
cord sir I need you got the weight of
this no it's not heavy you don't know
but you just I just need well I mean I
need someone to hold it now we need to
get the weight off underneath this they
can hold it for a minute or two really
yes
if we can not take any chances let's not
no CDI walks the building to
triple-check thousands of connections
hey brain Devin also keep an eye out on
your deck loaded columns be sure the
greenhorn is tucked in
[Music]
when we blast we're gonna find out real
fast if we're right or wrong you know
will either be heroes or bones police
block off a 600 meter exclusion zones
thousands gather to see a world record
attempt to drop this tower CDI
takes their positions here's what
they'll watch for the team demolished
part of the parking garage so the
high-rise has a place to land if they
didn't remove enough post-tensioning
anchors could shoot out Tom and Doug pre
blasted Ocean Towers hurricane proof
cores
but they could still be strong enough to
resist implosion Stacey rigged a complex
duel wiring system to shoot the cores at
the perfect time
if the det-cord crosses mansions to the
north could be destroyed as the building
falls uncontrollably
mark we're in the red go can nine
seven
fire
[Music]
this could be the highest reinforced
concrete structure ever employed
Oshin tower comes down to 13 seconds
go on the ground Victor calm down report
from your side got a lot of dust mark
I'm starting to work my way in now from
a distance the high-rise appears to have
toppled completely Tom approaches the
site mark waits for a report I'm still
coming in mark
holy debris lies on the wrong side of
the fence
here's how it all happened fire the
pulsed reaches the building columns on
the east end of the garage detonate
first
[Music]
explosives in the upper levels go off
anchors do not shootout with the Tala
Falls
the outer part of the structure begins
to form
the high-rise doesn't tilt as much as
Mark hoped
some cables pole
other snack
The Corrs hesitate
but Stacy's wiring system comes through
the spines fail and breakup
to the east the tower lands in the drop
zone
in this unprecedented footage we get a
chance to ride this monster tower as it
crashes to the ground
[Music]
one of the cores doesn't fall is plan
the top five floors of a stairwell core
rolls off the debris pile
and comes to rest outside the northern
perimeter they explore the site relief
something here the debris sits nearly
one and a half meters beyond the
perimeter we are all clear
when the houses to the north mark
philosophy copy that none of the
million-dollar homes are damaged but a
section of fence is crushed those shafts
are just so rigid so tough it just road
road road road road over and then it
rolled off to the side crews quickly
mobilized to clean up everything else
went as planned
I wish I could have have gotten it to
move maybe another 10 15 feet initially
then then we got it and maybe we
wouldn't have this little problem on the
north side but the plan is good to be
able to have that energy at your
disposal and use it effectively it has
to make you smile it has to make your
day the mission to drop the highest
reinforced concrete structure ever is a
success
seedy I will submit this project to the
Guinness Book of World Records ocean
tower an engineering disaster many would
rather forget but in the wake of its
destruction the mission to build on this
sandbar will surely continue
[Music]
you
