New Report Determines Why 2015 Implosion of 2 High Rises Failed

Last year, we shared a video of 6 Scottish high rise buildings that were imploded simultaneously, which was one of our favorite demolition videos of 2015.  The problem, however, was that only 4 of them actually fell completely, causing delays as crews had to use high reach machinery to complete the job.

When the Red Roads high rise residential flats were built in the 1960s, they were actually the tallest of their kind in Europe.  After a few decades of deterioration, the buildings had to be removed and they put on quite the show doing so.  If you haven’t seen it before, you can check out the video, uploaded to Youtube by Green hand gang, below (NSFW language at 9 second mark):

As you can see, two of the buildings failed to fall, one still standing 11 stories high and the other standing 13 stories high.  After months of investigation into the failure, the cause has finally been determined.  According to BBC News, the main issue was the inconsistencies in construction records.  Safedem, the demolition contractor, noted in the report that the 50 year old drawings stated the steel inside the buildings was considerably smaller than what had actually been installed, causing them to underestimate the “robustness” of the building.  The report also states that “Safedem had carried out detailed surveys and noted a number of discrepancies between the surveyed buildings and the design drawings and therefore appear to have followed good practice.”  Because of the discovery of discrepancies, the agency that completed the report also explained that the company could have done more to err on the side of caution, especially with regards to pre-weakening the structures.

The clearing of the site is still set to be complete on schedule in 2017.

Full story: Glasgow's Red Road tower blocks 'too tough' for blast demolition | BBC