Videos

Explosive demolition techniques were used to remove a defunct bridge in China. The Lishui Bridge in Zhangjiajie, central China was around 40 years old and was no longer able to meet current traffic requirements. The local authorities hired in a demolition contractor to remove the structure, with explosives then being used to bring it crashing down earlier this week. The Big People’s Daily Online reported that 1tonne of explosives was used for the work.

Nexus Infrastructure group has signed a contract with the Australian government to deliver the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing project in Queensland state, costing nearly US$1.2 billion.

Nexus will design construct, finance, operate and maintain the 41km route that will bypass the city of Toowoomba, east to west.

Toowomba and district, with a population of around 158,000, is inland 125km west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane, on Australia’s northeast coast.

Adjustments to Brazil's budget could pose a threat to the planned immersed tunnel between Santos and Guaruja in Sao Paulo state, local media reported.

Sao Paulo state had put the project out to tender and had verbal support from the national treasury to borrow up to US$2 billion to finance the project. However, because of the economic crisis, this support has not materialised.

The tunnel would by 1.7km long, carry six lanes of traffic and be at an estimated depth of 35m.

At least nine, all in a row, according to a recent video shot in a town close to Montreal in the eastern province of Quebec.

It was feeding time last month for a clutch of 178 Caterpillar’s hydraulic 350 and 336D excavators as they nibbled, pounded and munched their way through the redundant road bridge in Vaudreuil.

The Avenue St-Charles overpass was surplus to requirements after a multi-million dollar interchange revamp was completed that included building a wider bridge next to the old one.

342 Topcon Positioning Group has agreed a partnership with Ascending Technologies to brand and distribute its rotary-wing unmanned aerial system (UAS).

The agreement gives Topcon exclusive distribution of Ascending’s AscTec Falcon 8 unmanned aerial system (UAS), as well as the GeoEXPERT and the InspectionPRO sensing and feature packages.

The Topcon-branded UAS includes the latest AscTec Trinity autopilot technology.

Ascending Technologies, based in Germany, develops and manufactures micro UAS for professional, civil and research use.

Demolition work has started of a 30-year-old bridge in the UK town of Barnsley in preparation for a €58 million revamp of the town centre.

Kendray Street Bridge is the first structure to be knocked down to allow for the redevelopment, which includes a new town square, library and a refurbished market.

Thankfully no workers were injured when an excavator plummeted onto a road during a bridge demolition in the US state of Ohio.

An amateur video captures the moment the bridge gave way, leaving a second excavator luckily in place on the other half of the bridge.

The incident occurs at the very start of the video clip, so viewers may have to ‘rewind’ several times to get the best picture of the excavator hitting the ground.

A bridge demolition job is underway in California at present. The Carmenita Road Bridge, which crosses the Santa Ana Freeway, is being removed in stages. The work is being carried out at night when the I-5 route is closed to traffic, so as to minimise the impact for daytime peak traffic flow. The work is being carried out by a specialist contractor on behalf of 5246 Caltrans in the Santa Fe Springs area. The three week job is being closed overnight seven days a week between Rosecrans and Valley View avenues. The work forms part of the Carmenita Road Interchange project.

Canadian contractor Delsan has carried out a successful demolition of an overpass in Quebec. The firm used a number of John Deere excavators equipped with breakers and cutters to break up the overpass in a controlled demolition job. The structure was located in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue and needed to be removed as it had been made redundant.

A bridge demolition job went spectacularly wrong in Finland recently. Luckily for all concerned, there were no casualties, but it could have quite easily been a different story. A demolition contractor was using an excavator fitted with a hydraulic breaker to break up the structure, but the work was carrying on despite live traffic flowing on the road under the bridge.

Note too the behaviour of drivers on the route after the initial collapse.

This video came just as the European Demolition Association headed to Finland’s capital Helsinki to discuss best practice.

Specialist contractor Priestly Demolition recently carried out a successful project in Ontario, Canada. The firm used its specialist skills to remove The Fountain Road Overpass, crossing Highway 401. A fleet of excavators equipped with demolition tools, including breakers and cutting equipment, was brought into to carry out the work using an overnight closure of the highway. Other machines including wheeled loaders and backhoe loaders were used to remove the broken out materials and to carry out other general duties.

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