YouTube - Armac Demolition - M1 J8 Bridge Demolition
:cool2:notworthy Sittin here drinkin first cup of coffee(not awake) click on your vid an say whoa bigger rush than the caffine!!! Way cool. Looks like somethin outta sci-fi movie. :drinkup Bob aka ZZ
Pretty neat find Stock. It looks like ants eating a grasshopper, surreal.
cool video, it seems like they had an unlimited number of excavators... but they sure were fast.
Wow, yeah it does have a sort of insect animation to it. :yup Really cood vid Stock...nice find.
i bought a microwave bed from them...8hours sleep in 4 minutes....haha
thats mad lots of close contact i say
I need a nap now.....exhausted after watching that.
This is mine and my workmates handy work!
And why are you hiding your light under a bushel?
Is it just me or is that guy in the 345D possibly PS C up front doin all the work? lol Definately a cool video though. Althouh I did spot room for at least 4 more excavators.
I had to look this one up! From the the new testament! lol Think its a compliment anyway! 345 had a few different ops through the shift, inc the boss for an hour or so. The main demolition workload is carried by two 345C UHDs and a modified Hitachi 650 LCH as these have the reach to get up and over the top with the hammers.
Andy I for one would have had this plastered up all over the place with the story attached,but if we have to torture you to get the story we will organise it, we are worse than the praetorians you know there are a lot of Hef operators out there! My 1,234 post yahoo!
Hahaha, I'm working away this week but I'll try and get some good bridge demo pics together for next weekend with a story to go with it! I do post some of Armac's pics in the demolition section but I guess the audience is a little smaller there.
Re: Don't hide your light under a bushel Posted by Brian from Shawnee on June 26, 2007 In Reply to: Don't hide your light under a bushel posted by Angela on June 26, 2007 : Do you know the origin of the phrase' "don't hide your light under a bushel"? That's from the Christian Bible, Matthew 5:15. This is how it's rendered in the King James Version: "Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house." Don't think Demo Andy or anyone else on this forum is shy about the good work that they do. It may not be God's work, but it's good work nevertheless.
Mmmmm, fresh meat!
Is that the return of the old buzzard or the"Black throated blue warbler"
bridge demo We had a gas tanker crash in metro Detroit last summer that brought one half down in less than an hour. The clean-up took a little longer though.
We had the same thing happen down in Birmingham, AL in 2002. There are some more pics here.
Wow CM that must have been some wreck! Did you get to see any of it?
No, just the news pictures. I stayed away from the site, actually I try to stay away from "Malfunction Junction" as much as possible. There is an interesting story on the rebuild. From the article -
I just haven't had any luck at getting my excavator to move that fast. Still trying though. They do the bridges a little different here. Never seen any high reach machines on them. usually a couple 30 to 40 tonners sit on the deck and take it out, leaving just the beams, then get them down at each end, and work the mess from each side at the ground level. I always get a little concerned for the guys sitting on the middle of the bridge, and breaking the deck they are sitting on. I guess if you have been close to it you get a comfort level for what you can eat while still sitting on it.
I'm impressed. I counted about 10 excavators at a minimum. 24 hours from last car to first car. That is an orchestra, and I am sure the super was busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest.
I read about this job at the time, I think the contract required the bridge down and traffic running again within 24 hrs, with massive late penalties. So - they threw all the iron they could at the job and got 'er done. Hopefully Andy removes his bushel and tells us the real story. Very impressive video, by the way.
How is the video made ? It is obviously a fixed camera but how is it done ? Is it a time lapse camera or is it an edited video ? It can't be a speeded up version of the full 24 hours surely , it would have to run at light speed to show 24 hours in 3 minutes .
Maybe a frame every minute of that, then run at normal speed maybe,
that is one cool video.
Heres the story! With pics. Right to show the sequence I've got the following pics, there of a smaller bridge on a dual carriage way. Then I'll post some ones of the heavier bridges later on. Pic 1: before the storm, this pics shows the machine park, with the line of spare attachments, crane mats for protecting the road and highways crew removing the central barrier. Pic 2: 2 x Cat 320 straight booms in operation, one removing the hand railings on top of the bridge, the other placing the crane mats being fed four at a time by two telehandlers. Pic 3: Finishing touches to the mats, big boys start to roll in- Cat 345 2 x volvo 360s Pic 4: Everyone started, Hitachi 650, 2x Cat 345, 4x Volvo 360 and 2x Cat 320 Next post coming up....
Pic 5: 650 comes down on the carriage way, lighting towers set up Pic 6: Good pic of the high reaches, clear to see the there advantage here far more productive than a normal machine and it takes away the need to have machines working on top of the spans. Pic 7: Bridge down, processing phase begins. Removal of heavy rebar, getting ready to load out the concrete. Pic 8: The cleaned road, first few cars, I wonder how many of them noticed that the bridge has gone! Closure time, around 12 hours
Heres some random ones from the M1 motorway: Some nasty rebar in there!
Three more, thats best of what I've got. Any Q's, fire away!
Excellent Andy thank you very much for those .
Yeah man, really nice pics andy. Is the main boom on all 345's made like that, or is that a special demo boom? It looks like it has two pin positions in the middle of the boom. One pin position, the one it's in now, makes the boom straight. The other postion would give the boom a bend at mid point. Cool.
These are very different to your standard spec 345. There a demolition purpose machine built by Cat themselves, official designation 345C UHD. By having the two position boom you can still use the machine as a digging machine as well as having the benefit of much greater vertical reach. As well as this, you have the tilting cab, full roof window/wiper, more weight in the counterweight (So to speak!) thicker belly blates, side guards on upper structure and full length track guards. All together in the config you see here, they weight just under 60t without attachment.
Can the boom also be separated at that point so it can be swapped for a long reach arm for tall demolition work ?
Somebodies been holding out, very awesome pictures andy.
Yes thats right, 26-28m high-reach arm for a 345C, and for the 336D I operate around 21-22m
Andy, Cool pics. how da ya like the 336? :drinkup Bob aka ZZ
The 336 is very good, good reach, plenty of power, multifunctions with different attachments well and precise through the levers. Drinks plenty of diesel too- lol!
sweet pictures, Andy. It looks like the 336 is out there doing some real damage to those buildings. LOL. What kind of projects you got going on right now, m8?
Do you ever use pulverizers, or anything other than the hammers on concrete?
Do you charge by the minute?
Nice machines:drinkup
sweet vidski
Very...very... Cool!
Yeh we use crackers/pulverisors, but although the crackers can go through the bridges, it hard going without pre-weakening with hammers. There used more when it comes to the clear-up to remove the heavy rebar. Errrr... not sure about this question to be honest!
Ahh! now Andy even the poor Irish understand that but as the english is different on this side of the pond what he means as the bridge was flattened in 3 mins do you charge by the minute? may be a rate of £500,000/min.
Ahhhh damnit- I missed that! Thought I was getting better at understanding 'the crack' lol. £500,000/min sounds about right!
Amazing video. Great pics and explanation Andy. To you its normal and routine, to us mere mortals its :OMG :jawdrop :scool
there was either big bonus incentives for completion or even bigger penalties for delays! had to be a dozen excavators on that teardown.
You got it in one :drinkup
Well can charge you a penalty, not allowed by law but the hire of the closed motorway would be prohibitive and very very expensive to keep closed .
thats cool !!!! must have been fun working so tight to so many hoes
great pics andy, what kind of mats did you use to preserve the asphalt? Great machinery park- just switch to oilquick your machines are all fit for the best demo. we often use explosives on the bridges which have to come down fast