{"id":16730,"date":"2014-07-12T06:00:10","date_gmt":"2014-07-12T10:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=16730"},"modified":"2014-07-14T08:55:07","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T12:55:07","slug":"constructive-destruction-in-ottawa-sunday-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2014\/07\/12\/constructive-destruction-in-ottawa-sunday-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"Constructive destruction in Ottawa Sunday morning"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sir<\/a>

Sir John Carling Building
image: P119<\/a>, Creative Commons, some right reserved. Via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

I’m not sure how often big structures get blown up in this region, or if that’s the sort of thing you’ll go out of your way to watch.<\/p>\n

But if explosive change strikes you as a marvel of ingenuity, than Ottawa’s Central Experimental Farm near Dow’s Lake is the place to be this Sunday – from a safe distance, of course. That’s where a large, brick structure is going down with a bang at 7 a.m. Indeed, this is said to be the biggest controlled demolition in the city’s history.<\/p>\n

The Sir John Carling Building<\/a> (described as an “obsolete federal building tower”) will hopefully tumble down without mishap into 40,000 imperial tonnes of rubble. (Here’s the official summary<\/a> of the building and the future of that site.)<\/p>\n

Marie-Danielle Smith wrote up the <\/span>building’s history<\/a> for the Citizen:<\/span><\/p>\n

It was designed by renowned architect Hart Massey to be the national headquarters for federal agriculture. The building went up in 1967, costing the government about $10 million.<\/p>\n

The building was named after Sir John Carling, a businessman and politician who served as federal agriculture minister under Sir John A. Macdonald from 1885 to 1892.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to a detailed\u00a0Citizen\u00a0preview<\/span><\/a>\u00a0by Ian MacLeod, the work will be done\u00a0using 400 kilograms of explosives set in 2,000 charges. (As depicted in a Citizen diagram<\/a>\u00a0by Dennis Leung.)<\/p>\n

The project went to real pros: Idaho-based\u00a0Advanced Explosives Demolition Inc. under the watchful eyes of Eric “master blaster” Kelly:<\/p>\n

The surrounding area is open Experimental Farm property, except for one critical obstacle.\u00a0Just metres away, on the northwest side, sits a small, one-storey former cafeteria building known as the \u201cWest Annex.\u201d It\u2019s a heritage site the government wants protected.<\/p>\n

So Kelly has to get the tower to fall to the southeast, just enough to miss demolishing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a tough one,\u201d says master blaster.<\/p>\n

Kelly estimates he has \u201cshot\u201d close to 1,000 structures in his 35-year career. He holds world records. In 1994, he lit the fuse on 5,400 kilograms\u00a0of explosives and toppled a 251,000-square-metre Sears building in Philadelphia, the largest U.S. structure ever demolished with explosives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Advanced Explosives Demolition was the company hired to take down the Lake Champlain Bridge back in December of 2009, as seen here in slow-motion.

<\/div>