Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Noise suppression plan filed for demolition of Bethesda Ave. office building


The slow and laborious demolition of the office building at 4733 Bethesda Avenue continues, with the demolition contractor having recently filed a Noise Suppression Plan for the final phase of the destruction. If accepted by Montgomery County, the plan will allow for noise levels of up to 85 dBA.

What will be making the racket will be robotic hydraulic demolition units, and concrete pulverizer units. Best of all for folks living and working on that block, the plan filing states that the work "will take several months to complete."

The only upside for residents across the street (unless they work at night or from home), is that the loud work will be limited to business hours on weekdays. I suspect restaurants on that block, who want to draw customers to their outdoor patios, would have preferred a controlled demolition taking only a matter of seconds, rather than this drawn-out process that calls the Oldest Man to mind.

Here's how they demolish tall buildings elsewhere in the world:

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure the method they've selected is much less intrusive of neighboring businesses and resident than the extremely loud explosions and dust cloud that would consume Bethesda Row. Steel frame buildings are also more complicated to demolish via implosion vs reinforced concrete.

Anonymous said...

17 minutes of implosion little boys and their toys

Anonymous said...

7:06. am - Correct. For concrete buildings, all that is needed is to shatter the columns in the lowest level. For steel buildings, each individual beam must be sliced all the way through at both the bottom and the top.

Anonymous said...

Any word on any specific tenants vacating 7200 Wisconsin at the end of their current lease?

Anonymous said...

Comments banned from the Memorial Day article? Looks like you took those photos at dawn this morning.

Anonymous said...

Any thoughts on how they'll take down the Apex building? It looks harder to take down piece by piece.