VIDEO: ‘Bomb-proof’ military buildings imploded by CDI

Controlled Demolition Inc. (CDI), Phoenix, Maryland, brought down six former military buildings via implosion on Aug. 8.  

The Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne (MOTBY) in Bayonne, New Jersey, was a U.S. military ocean terminal that was operated from 1942 to 1999. The site, which originally was used as a logistics and repair base for the military during World War II, was transitioned to a U.S. Army base in 1967 where it remained operational until it was shuttered in 1999 as part of a series of base closures.

Working as explosives subcontractor to main demolition contractor Control Services LLC of Jersey City, New Jersey, CDI performed the preparation for, and successful explosives felling of, four 6-story reinforced concrete buildings and two 7-story buildings on-site. In all, 1,500,000 square feet of buildings were imploded.

CDI contractors drilled a total of 7,184 holes, which were loaded with 6,400 pounds of explosives and 10.2 miles of detonating cord in a non-electric initiation system to bring the structure down atop the 5-foot-high loading dock elevation of the first-floor slab.

CDI President Mark Loizeaux told Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine that the structures, which were originally designed to withstand a bombing, required extra due diligence to take down.

“When they design a more robust structural system, it requires more effort to bring it down,” Loizeaux says. “That was I think the reason that Joe Bolowski, president of Control Services, opted for implosion, because while the structure was only 6 and 7 stories tall (plus another 5 feet of loading dock height), it was very, very heavily built—there were floor loading capacities there of 600 pounds per square foot and higher. We had columns that were over 4 feet in diameter and slabs up to 18 inches thick. That's robust. It was a flat slab pillar and pad structure, and if you go after a structure like that with a high reach, you can only reach what your one, two, three or five high-reaches can reach at a given point in time. What we do is we can put the entire structure on the ground, and you can take every piece of equipment you own and put it right on the pile because it is right where you can reach it. The piles [after implosion] were 15-feet tall, so it was perfect. It went off on time, as planned, and everybody is happy.”

Following the implosion, Control Services LLC will work to remove the site’s debris. Once cleared, a UPS terminal is slated to be built on the premise. The location will allow UPS to transport fully loaded trucks by ferry to New York’s five boroughs, helping the company save on fuel and trucking costs.   

Watch the video of the implosion below, courtesy of CDI: