CD Designs Blog

What goes up, must eventually come down! There is nothing quite as exciting as watching explosions and implosions — from documentaries about volcanoes, to explosive police car chases on the news, to the special effects on the latest Hollywood blockbuster. Concrete explosions are also exciting — concrete lends itself well to dynamic detonation, as it is fairly brittle material, so will blast apart into many shards.

And even better, it is also possible to recycle used concrete into more Portland Cement and aggregate. This is done by removing non-concrete materials such as wood and metal, then putting the concrete waste through a crusher, either once or a number of times depending on how small you want the particles. Other impurities are then removed via a number of methods such as handpicking or water floatation. The recycled concrete can then be used as aggregate for fresh concrete, gravel for construction projects or even riprap for erosion control, depending on the size of the particles.

To celebrate concrete destruction and recycling, we’ve put together a list of our favourite concrete demolition videos. Enjoy!

• http://youtu.be/W7fy1qKXfD0 – this rather great road crash video isn’t exactly an explosion, but it demonstrates how strong concrete can be.
• http://youtu.be/5yRGVhMQiBE – a GBU-28 TOW “Bunker Buster” bomb penetrating a thick layer of solid concrete and blowing up what’s below. Amazing that the concrete structure remains.
• http://youtu.be/GtIjUn7_erY – $100,000,000.00 Skyscraper Fail! a sad story, accompanied by melancholic music and an awesome explosion.
• http://youtu.be/MCmcrSuheho – the amazingly fast detonation of the old Aladdin hotel, Las Vegas. See http://youtu.be/HQIMKJcxkbI for some other different, interesting views.
• http://youtu.be/_anYswmGMeM – the “WORLDS TALLEST Concrete Implosion”: the Ocean Tower building, South Padre Island, Texas.  Quite dramatic.

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