Ep 3. Cincinnati Demolition Disaster

In this episode of Engineering Catastrophes season 5, viewers are taken to Cincinnati, Ohio to investigate a demolition disaster that occurred at the former home of the Cincinnati Bengals football team, the Riverfront Stadium. The episode takes a deep dive into the complex and dangerous world of demolition and explores what went wrong during the demolition of this iconic stadium.

The episode starts by introducing viewers to the Riverfront Stadium, which was home to the Bengals from 1970 to 1999, had also hosted many iconic events, including concerts, soccer matches and baseball games. The city of Cincinnati had planned to demolish the iconic structure and build a new one in its place as part of a major development project.

The demolition was entrusted to the company Environmental Enterprises, a specialist in demolition and environmental services. The company had put in a winning bid of $5.85 million to demolish the 63,000 seat stadium. With a crew on site, Environmental Enterprises began its demolition work in January 2002.

Almost as soon as the demolition began, problems started to appear. Dust clouds were forming and spreading uncontrollably, an unexpected collapse of a part of the structure that caused the stadium to tilt dangerously, and noise complaints from nearby residents are just some of the issues the demolition team faced.

The episode delves into the factors behind these issues. The demolition team had put in place a unique strategy that used water to suppress dust, which was seen as a great idea in theory. But in practice, the amount of water used to suppress the dust was causing erosion on the riverbank that the stadium sat on. The imbalance of weight and resistance caused by the water then led to the unintended collapse of a part of the stadium.

The team was forced to call in a structural engineer to assess the tilt. The engineer concluded that the stormwater runoff from the demolition site had eroded the soil under the foundation. This had caused some of the structural support of the stadium to disappear.

The team rectified these concerns with grouting, using a high-tech mix of chemicals to seal and strengthen the base as well as a system of pumps that hardened the foundation's soil. Meanwhile, the noise complaints were addressed by operational tweaks to the demolition machinery.

Despite the best efforts of the demolition team, the demolition was also hurtling towards bankruptcy. The cost of fixing the issues that have emerged had exceeded the budget by a significant amount. The owner of the company stated in an interview that they were close to becoming insolvent and was forced to lay off some workers in the process.

The episode takes an in-depth look at the demolition workforce and what it felt like to work under the immense pressure of the job. We see the team having to juggle the demands of the job with their personal lives while potentially putting themselves in harm's way on a daily basis.

The Cincinnati Demolition Disaster highlights the risks and complexities associated with the demolition of large structures. Engineering Catastrophes season 5 provides a glimpse into the world of civil engineering and the risk that comes with modifying the natural environment. It is a thought-provoking documentary that is both educational and entertaining.