Alabama dormitory goes out with a bang

The implosion of a 13-story, 270,000-square-foot dormitory building on the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, provided additional July 4 fireworks entertainment for that western Alabama city.

Bixby, Oklahoma-based Dykon Explosive Demolition Corp. performed the implosion as a subcontractor to North Carolina-based D.H. Griffin Wrecking Co., according to local media reports.

An online report from the AL.com website indicate Dykon drilled about 2,000 holes to hold an identical number of charges that, cumulatively, involved some 675 pounds of dynamite. The building successfully collapsed upon itself in about 20 seconds.

The media organization says the implosion took place at 7:00 the morning of July 4, consisting of “a loud charge” followed by “a string off fireballs” that blew across the top floor windows, and finally the toppling of the structure “in a matter of seconds.”

Once the dust had cleared, writes AL.com, some 30,000 tons of concrete rubble resulted, which the university says will be “hauled to a recycling center where it will be crushed and then used for future campus projects.”

Contractor D.H. Griffin is well versed and experienced in both concrete and scrap metal recycling and is likely to achieve a high materials recycling rate on the project.

The 13-story structure taken down was built in 1968 as the second iteration of a residence hall for female students first built in 1914. An Alabama Public Radio online article indicates some 50,000 students had called the second Tutwiler Hall home between 1968 and 2021.

The University of Alabama determined a thorough renovation of the building determined would not be cost-effective, so the university instead has built a new Tutwiler Hall next to the one just imploded, says AL.com. 

                  Video from WVTM 13 News.