Real-life heroes

The Singapore-based container ship MV Dali made international headlines after it lost power March 26 and collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, subsequently collapsing the bridge and halting activity in one of the world’s busiest ports.

A portion of the bridge fell directly on the ship’s bow, pinning it in the harbor and requiring a high-stakes, emergency demolition project in the choppy waters of the Baltimore harbor. It was a treacherous assignment to use explosive cutting to free the Dali, whose crew had been detained on the boat for 48 days since its crash, and to reopen the port.

It was one of the highest-profile demolitions of the year, and yet the demolition contractor wasn’t listed anywhere in media reports before or after the demo. While the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard should, of course, be recognized for their incredible work in cleaning up the primary shipping channel into Baltimore, Construction & Demolition Recycling wanted to give credit where credit was due. A little digging revealed the identity of the company that handled the demolition: Controlled Demolition Inc. (CDI), a nationally known name coincidentally based right out of Baltimore.

CDI has a long history of excellence in explosives demolition. The company’s founder, John D. “Jack” Loizeaux, demolished his first structure with explosives in 1947. During the 1950s, the family’s public relations efforts drew attention to their “implosion” method, at the time a new and innovative approach to demolition. Mark Loizeau entered the business in the ’60s with his brother, Doug, and in 1986, they took over management of the company as president and vice president, respectively.

In the decades since, CDI has continued to cement its reputation as one of the best-known names in the business. So much so that, even though CDI’s name was not mentioned in media reports surrounding the demolition, many in the industry correctly guessed the company had been involved.

“One look at the perfect placement of the perfect amount of shaped charges on perfectly cut notches, all timed to the millisecond, and I knew it was the work of CDI,” one fan commented on social media. “They wrote the book on controlled demolition.”

Read all about the company’s experience in our cover story, "Under Control." To watch a video showing everything from the prep work required for this project to the view from onboard the Dali during the controlled demolition, visit www.youtube.com/@theloizeauxgroupllc.