www.pedestrians... DC General Hospital being demolished with a wrecking ball. A little history of DC General Hospital: www.nlm.nih.go... Produced by John Z Wetmore, producer of "Perils For Pedestrians".
This was Monsour Hospital east of Pittsburgh,Pa. They started out usi g a high reach excavator but the building shifted and became unstable so they had to shift to the ole wrecking ball to finish it off
Very satisfying to watch! To all you Armchair Crane Operators on here talking about what a horrible Operator this Guy is, let me tell you there is way more to it than just swing the Ball into the side of the Building. He is doing a good job processing the material into as small a pieces as possible before it gets to the ground. That is the objective here. Always some damn "Experts" in the crowd. Smh
I like the old method of wrecking ball action. Yes, this could have also been done with a high-reach demolition excavator, but the crane and ball method is justified for this demo job. It comes down to total cost of demolition and the time alloted for the work (mobilizing men and machines, demo, sorting of material, amount of recyclable material, trucking, disposal of unusable material into commercial construction landfills, cleanup, etc.). This building is of steel-frame, with brick veneer and masonry backup. The operator has to remove the steel by shearing off the connections while working on the rest of the structure. The smaller you can break material during the initial process (with the ball), the less secondary breakage required, and easier to haul away, or process on site. Perhaps the height of the building was higher than the available high-reach excavator, hence the use of the crane. The crane being used is a Manitowoc 3500, a friction machine (using clutches and brakes, operated with both hands and feet), requiring skill to operate. It isn't easy spotting the ball accurately, and the operator goes home with a sore neck from having to look up all day!
Exactly! All the armchair crane operators just want to see huge chunks knocked off and the building to fall over. There is much more than that to be done, and it is obvious this operator is doing as much separation as possible before it hits the ground.
Thank you for pointing out which crane is used. I get interested into the classic Manitowoc friction machines more and more. It seems to me that Manitowoc and Link-Belt cranes are the top brands regarding wrecking ball jobs in the US nowadays - at least what I can judge by all the videos here on YT. And Link-Belt having more modern units out there for demolition. My favorite is still this old LOT P&H 790 TC! Best regards, Menck-Max
So creepy. I used to run service calls here in the 90's to work on their kitchen equipment. Watching this channel, a lot of places I worked are now gone.
I wonder why they used a wrecking ball instead of using another way to demo the building. It looks like it would take so much more time to demo it this way being such a huge building.
its cheap you can get the crane for under 60k at an auction. demo is hard on the machines why buy a multi million dollar highreach when you can buy a new dragline every job
The old timers used to put old truck tires between the connection for the ball and cable. It was for shock protection for the boom and cable. Guess the younger guys are too smart for that
@Albert Cyphers thats funny lm an old baller an we called them training tires for young green operators,boom shockload controled thru brake feel an experience,when skilled enough the tires gone an you go to bigger ball an startmakin hay!, less hardware on ball less hangups on structure
if you have a good operator the ball can kill the efficiency of a good jaw operator. but, its not seen enough these days for an average comparison to be made.
Not a wrecker myself but a painter. I wonder is it possible to attach some kind of remote video camera to a stick of A long reach excavator do the operator in the cab can see on the screen exactly what is happening perhaps 10 stories up.?
Clearly there is still a time and place for old school demolition methods. But it makes me wonder if that old lattice boom crane takes just as much of a beating as that building is taking...
The hospital was closed in 2001. The building then served as a homeless shelter, which in turn was closed. The buildings on the grounds were torn down to make room for redevelopment.
Messer. Not allowing for the G force in rotation every swing so he misses over and over. Stops to look at his work after every thump. Instead of using the ball. Should have his rotation stopped and beginning to go back out as it strikes the he only needs to rotate half as much and works twice as fast Also worth noting is that dropping the ball shocks the crane way more than swinging. Nice camerawork. Nice Menke Crane.
Apart from expensive explosives I can’t see what else they can use. When you think of a building demolition the first thing you think of is a Wrecking Ball.
Did the comments say that they had a high reach excavator ? Maybe something happened and they switched to the wrecking ball. The only thing I'll say is maybe a spotter to help the crane operator.
They were using the wrecking ball on all the tall parts of the building. They had a high reach excavator for the lower parts, and other excavators to handle all the rubble. Berg Demo has tons of equipment, and could have brought in whatever they needed.
Needs to give the ball a bigger swing, and hitting empty spaces, the building may be well built, but a decent operator would have had the building down in no time,I know people are saying he's a good operator, even though half the time the ball is going into an open void, more damage from the chain holding the ball.
Das ist ein wirklich schlechter Baumaschinenführer. Die Versuche mit der Abrisskugel das Gebäude abzubrechen , wirken ziemlich hilflos. Vielleicht sollte er sich mal die Videos der Fa. Luff aus Aschaffenburg ansehen. Werner Luff würde das Gebäude in einem Viertel der Zeit mit einer über 50 Jahre älteren Baumaschine (zum Beispiel mit einem Menck M152) abbrechen.
That has to be the worst operator of a ball and chain i`ve ever seen. I wonder if he know`s he`s being filmed. You must have the patience of a saint John.
Deze machinist bakt der niks van, zit geen lijn in wat ie doet met de kogel. Laat hem eens kijken family luff te Germany . En kijk hoe die man met de kogel werkt. Maar deze deze doet maar wat .
