Good lord, looks like they hired a genuine professional amature to implode those cranes.

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Good lord, looks like they hired a genuine professional amature to implode those cranes.

Almost looks as if they made a bad situation worse.

Larry and Curly were not available so they used Moe and Shep. Correct link I believe to Crane demo:

https://www.nola.com/multimedi...-af3d50571b94.html#1

"Controlled" implosion, huh? Huh.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Larry and Curly were not available so they used Moe and Shep.

Nor were Larry, Darryl, and Darryl.

25% success is a good indicator on how the city is run

I often wish I wasn’t a Parish resident.

Though I’m very happy the surrounding buildings are unscathed

I live 25 miles away and the detonations could be heard at the house

My wife and I were in New Orleans just a few blocks away a few days before.
I am sure glad things were not worse.

I've never seen that much flame generated by a demolition cut in any of the videos and documentaries I've ever seen. Perhaps it was just because it was exposed to open air as it was, but it reminded me of the special effects techniques of adding bags of gasoline to make a detonation look more impressive for film.

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How in the world does something like this happen, with modern construction techniques and 50,000 different regulations? In some third world country, I wouldn't be surprised in the least to hear of something like this, but in the US? I don't get it.

That's the first thing I though of as well. This is the kind of shit you see in China or India when an entire building tips over like a domino.

what really caused the delay?

the developer missed the $5 mil payment due last Friday.

https://www.wwltv.com/article/...40-997b-a8a8ae0d8f9e

biggest thing we noticed (I'm a hotel architect and our firm took a little time to watch the video and discuss last week) was the structural system used on the top floors looks different than just about anything we typically see. long spans and no beams or joists so the composite slab is doing all of the spanning.

as Gator pointed out, it's a cast in place concrete podium up to about the 5th or 6th floor, which largely remains intact after the collapse. typically you build a podium of a certain height and then you switch to a cheaper structural system above. (you can't build a 10 story type II building but you can build a 5 story type I podium and then a 5 story type II building on top.) mostly, we build hotels as type IIA construction unless it needs to be over 12 stories or very large and then we switch to IA. anyways, switching to a different structural system is pretty much always a cost savings effort. the steel up top is probably just elevator override stuff, nothing that would fail and cause the building to come down.

all of that said, it is very difficult to know what could have happened without seeing the design. it does seem likely that they prematurely loaded the slabs. in some previous photos you can see large stacks of steel, stacks of cmu, scissors lifts which are 3000-5000 lbs, etc. could be they removed shoring too quickly. maybe got a bad batch of concrete. it is typical now to use 5000psi concrete when all you actually need is 3000psi so that it gets to design strength in 2 or 3 days. could also have been a load-bearing stud system that wasn't in place but that would typically be built before the floor above was poured.

I'm tellin ya, folks, this whole deal is bad juju, a karmic vortex. I would not step foot in that place, ever.

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Originally posted by parabellum:
I'm tellin ya, folks, this whole deal is bad juju, a karmic vortex. I would not step foot in that place, ever.

I believe it was probably possible (structurally) to salvage the podium, but the implosion of the cranes signals that they will be tearing it down to the ground. They probably decided it would be a nightmare to try to get any contractor to take on the liability of resuming construction. Not to mention the bad press that it will always have attached.

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the developer missed the $5 mil payment due last Friday.

Seems pretty excessive for what they did.

So what is the the plan with the one crane boom dangling over the side of building? The city and the media don't seem to be saying much about that situation. I don't see how that can be safe.

I still can't figure out whey they didn't just take them down the same way they go up. They could have used a truck crane from the sides of the building to take them apart piece by piece and set them down nicely.

One of them was listing a bit, so it may have been a bit more tricky.

They gotta find this gal and get her to remove the hex from that place.

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Originally posted by a1abdj:
I still can't figure out whey they didn't just take them down the same way they go up. They could have used a truck crane from the sides of the building to take them apart piece by piece and set them down nicely.

One of them was listing a bit, so it may have been a bit more tricky.

Funny. I just showed my 14 year old son the video and after watching it his exact comment was 'Why didn't they just disassemble it?'

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Originally posted by Jelly:
So what is the the plan with the one crane boom dangling over the side of building? The city and the media don't seem to be saying much about that situation. I don't see how that can be safe.

Ground based crane and cut it apart and bring to the ground

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I'm tellin ya, folks, this whole deal is bad juju, a karmic vortex. I would not step foot in that place, ever.

^^^^^^^
I agree. Marie Laveux got something to do with this. I know you are familiar with NOLA culture. Add gambling, to the mix, Ann Rice, and Interview with a Vampire. It is all there. Bad juju indeed.