Construction World January 2021

included complex rigging with purpose-built winches, extended-length chain-blocks and mobile cranes, extensive rope-access activities and controlled cut-and-drop techniques using the boiler walls themselves as a drop chute. As for the future, Joe reveals that the project pipeline halted by the COVID-19 pandemic is slowly starting to become active again. “Those projects are piling up and we are ready for them,” he says. Not content to rest on its laurels, Jet Demolition is currently pursuing work as far afield as Saudi Arabia and Chile. This follows successful projects undertaken across Africa and in Indonesia and India. In the latter, Jet Demolition successfully completed a three-building implosion project in the Maradu region of Kochi in Kerala earlier this year. Marking the demolition specialist’s first project in India, it was also the first time that the country imploded a high-rise building. A successful business relationship established with Edifice Engineering of Mumbai last year resulted in Jet Demolition tendering successfully. The major concern of the Indian authorities was the safety of the public in this high-density area and surrounding properties, the closest being a school only 6 m away from Golden Kayaloram. The solution was to effectively split the 16-storey building into two, thereby collapsing it in two directions in order to avoid the school. Initial ground investigations revealed that the structures had been built on alluvium, or soft soil, in a designated wetland area. This meant that the magnitude of the ground vibrations induced by the implosions was sufficiently low not to cause any damage to surrounding buildings. Another major challenge was the fast-track nature of the project. Due to the fact that an urgent demolition order for the three buildings had been issued by the Supreme Court of India for violating building regulations, Jet Demolition had only 2,5 months from inception to successful completion. The fast-track project saw the team work 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week. “We have to keep on pursuing technical excellence. Being out

there doing your job right and looking after your customers is the best form of securing your future that is possible,” emphasises Joe. Jet Demolition will also continue to invest in equipment and develop new demolition techniques. “We have just been awarded our nineteenth consecutive NOSCAR international safety award, which is testament to our pursuit of best practice in everything we do.” ▄

The successful implosion of the 108-m-high, 31-storey Bank of Lisbon building in the Johannesburg Central Business District.

Main photograph: Sectioning and removal of FFP ducting from outside the boilerhouse at Duvha Power Station. Right: Jet Demolition directors and founders, Joe and Liz Brinkmann.

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD JANUARY 2021 CONSTRUCTION WORLD JANUARY 2021