[VIDEO] Foundation of the World’s Next Tallest Tower in Dubai is Complete

In October of last year, officials in Dubai held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Dubai Creek Tower, a building which is expected to surpass the reigning “tallest building” champion, the Burj Dubai.   Flash forward just a few short months and over a million hours of labor have already been spent on the project, all accident free.

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Bridge Collapses While Being Prepared for Demolition

While being prepared for demolition, the Grand Avenue Bridge in Glenwood Springs, Colorado unexpectedly collapsed to the railroad tracks below.  Thankfully, no injuries were reported, but the local police chief said that workers had to flee the scene once the bridge section started to fall.

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[VIDEO] Horizontal Directional Drilling Goes Off Course and Into Innocent SUV

Directional boring, or horizontal directional drilling, is a common method for installing underground pipe and conduits, among others.  Its main benefit is that it minimally disturbs the areas around where your pipe or cable needs to be installed.  Instead of cutting concrete, asphalt, or ripping up landscaping, the boring machine digs a tunnel underground and the installing material slides in after it’s complete. 

That’s what it’s SUPPOSED to do anyway.

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[VIDEO] Watch a Beautifully Executed Demolition of Century Old Asbestos-Filled Smoke Stack

Smoke stack demolitions are always fun to watch because they typically stand much taller than the buildings surrounding them, giving cameras great views of the carnage. They don’t always go well, like when a 2.6 million pound brick stack fell directly on top of an excavator (the operator was fine, by the way), but they’re always dramatic.

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[VIDEO] 18-Ton Wheel Loader Dances on Two Wheels

There are plenty of amazing heavy equipment operators across the country that can do things that you would never imagine possible. For instance, prepare and dress a hot dog, be a soccer goalie, and dunk a basketball. Popping a wheelie and bouncing on two wheels is equally as impressive.

While none of those skills above belong anywhere near a job site, it’s still pretty amazing to see exactly what those gigantic and powerful machines are capable of. This particular “dancing” routine in the video below was a way to draw attention to the machine at an industry trade show.  Based on the crowd turn out at the event, I’d say that Foton Lovol accomplished just that.  The FL958G-II Front End Wheel Loader clearly has some pretty good balance.

Enjoy the video from Foton Lovol below:

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Crane Collapses on Jobsite in Syracuse, NY, No Injuries Reported

On Tuesday morning, February 23, the Syracuse Fire Department responded to a call about a collapsed crane on a construction site near the university. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.

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[VIDEO] Need to Get Some Heavy Equipment Up a Mountain? Try a Cable Car System

Remote jobsites with difficult terrain pose some substantial logistical challenges when it comes to getting equipment and materials on site. I’ve seen several different methods used in the past, such as heavy equipment carrying blimps, cargo planes, helicopters, and the Fat Truck, but I recently came across a new method: a cable car.

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[VIDEO] A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Recent Record Breaker for World’s Tallest Demolition

In November of last year, the 546 foot tall Mina Plaza in Abu Dhabi officially broke the world record for tallest demolition by explosion, supplanting Hudson Department Store in Detroit, Michigan, which held the record for 22 years.

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[VIDEO] Helicopter Drops Cooling Tower During Lift to Roof

If you need to get some heavy mechanical equipment on the roof of your project, you could use a boring old crane – or you could gas up the bird and make that equipment take literal flight. Alright, so cranes aren’t actually boring, but some times a helicopter makes more logistical sense, either because it reduces total lift time or, in some cases, makes economical sense. Either way, there are some important safety precautions to take in case something goes wrong.

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Top 7 Demolition Videos of 2020

2020 was a stressful year, so let’s decompress a little bit by reviewing some of the most fun demolition videos from the past year. A demolition that broke a 22 year old record highlights the bunch and I also stretch what the definition of “demolition” is a little bit, because I think the video is so cool. Don’t @ me.

Without further ado, here are the top 7 demolition videos from 2020:

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[VIDEO] Nuclear Power Plant Site Utilizes 2 of the World’s Largest Cranes, and 55 Other Tower Cranes

2 years ago, crane manufacturer, Sarens, unveiled what is considered to be the world’s largest crane, by both size and lifting capacity. Big Carl, as the huge crane was nicknamed, began work a few months later on the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in England. Now, the jobsite boasts an abundance of crane activity, a true site to behold, and it was captured on aerial footage for you to enjoy.

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[VIDEO] New World Record For Tallest Building Demolished By Explosives

Back in 1998, the Hudson Department Store in downtown Detroit, Michigan was demolished by explosives. That building stood 410 feet tall across its 29 floors, making it, at the time, the tallest building to ever be taken down by implosion. The dust cloud covered many city blocks and the 20,000 unsuspecting people that came to watch the event. That record was just recently broken by a building over 100 feet taller than it.

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[VIDEO] Check Out This Excavator Free Fall Down a Huge Underground Access Shaft

Excavators aren’t typically meant to be dropped down to a lower level, but certain circumstances require it sometimes. The machines are obviously extremely heavy, so a large crane and proper rigging is required for it to happen safely. As a construction firm in Hong Kong, China recently found out, though, it’s a little tougher than it seems.

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[VIDEO] Watch an 85 Year Old, 5 Story Building be Relocated 200 Feet with a ‘Walking Machine’

Usually, when a new development is going to go into a spot where a building already exists, that existing building gets blown into smithereens and its remaining rubble hauled away. BUT, there is apparently a different way to handle the situation now, which is by politely asking the building to walk away and to find a new home – well, kind of.

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[VIDEO] CAT Creates Gigantic PAC-MAN Game Played with Remote Controlled Skid Steers

CAT is no stranger to finding extremely creative and expensive ways to show off their construction equipment. In years past, they’ve created a giant Jenga game with 600 pound blocks and the world’s first moving golf course on the backs of their dump trucks. Now, they’re showing off some of their new technology with the release of the biggest PAC-MAN game you’ve ever seen.

[VIDEO] Watch a 27 Story Building That Was Never Used Be Demolished in China

Buildings are demolished all the time in order to make way for new construction.  The buildings that are demolished have usually lived out their useful life and are no longer functional.  Recently a demolition video resurfaced, which shows a 27 story building in China being imploded.  The strange thing is that, since it was finished in 1999, the building had never even been used.

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[Timelapse] Construction Crews Relocate a 98 Foot Tall Sequoia Tree

There are a lot of people that would be pretty unhappy with whoever tears down a 98 foot tall, 105 year old tree to make room for a building expansion.  In order for most projects to work financially, however, many trees are uprooted and replaced with smaller trees.  That’s not what happened with what is believed to be the state of Idaho’s largest sequoia tree, however.

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[VIDEO] Roofer Amazingly Escapes Burning 6 Story Building By Hanging On to Crane Hook

As recently highlighted by several multi-story building fires, contractors should always be prepared in the event a fire starts on a job site.  There have been dozens multi-story building fires in the past few years and many were started when the building was topped out.  In most cases, the project was completely destroyed, leaving developers and owners to deal with years of delays from insurance claims.  A massive five-alarm fire at an Oakland construction site is one of the more recent examples.

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