Demolition of a bunker
I really do regret not taking any pictures of this building while it was still standing but I had no way of knowing what was hidden beneath it.
Back in the summer the bulldozers arrived and started to knock down this old (30's) building that looked like offices which I thought belonged to some power company, as there was a generator of some sort within its grounds. The bulldozers that were doing the demolition started with the 2 floors above ground level and I was surprised when I saw them rolling onto the ground floor as I knew there was a basement beneath and did not think that the floor would support this behemoth. Not only did the floor hold up, but 2 more joined it. Then slowly the floor became visible. This thing was 2-3 meters thick and 3 of these large caterpillars with pneumatic drill have been hammering away from 7am till about 6pm every day managing to do no more then half a meter a day. The past week explosives have been used and what you see in the picture below are heavy metal plates being laid over the concrete to minimize the flight of large chunks of concrete during the explosion process.
I have only managed to be at home for one of these explosions and they are pretty muted afairs. If I had not known what it was I would have thought something large like a cupboard was dropped next door. Still, there has been very little progress even with the explosives. The buggers you see in the picture above actually fit into the bunker below as during the summer 2 of them were in there removing support in the home the ceiling would collapse. I really kept thinking that perhaps the US air force should be asked to come and try one of their guided bunker busters but they knocked that idea on the head wisely realising that the Americans would miss and hit a building in another quarter of Munich.
I need to do some checking on what this building actually was. I never realised that concrete would be so resistant to the hammering this site has been receiving bu there you have it: The Germans build to last.
Back in the summer the bulldozers arrived and started to knock down this old (30's) building that looked like offices which I thought belonged to some power company, as there was a generator of some sort within its grounds. The bulldozers that were doing the demolition started with the 2 floors above ground level and I was surprised when I saw them rolling onto the ground floor as I knew there was a basement beneath and did not think that the floor would support this behemoth. Not only did the floor hold up, but 2 more joined it. Then slowly the floor became visible. This thing was 2-3 meters thick and 3 of these large caterpillars with pneumatic drill have been hammering away from 7am till about 6pm every day managing to do no more then half a meter a day. The past week explosives have been used and what you see in the picture below are heavy metal plates being laid over the concrete to minimize the flight of large chunks of concrete during the explosion process.
I have only managed to be at home for one of these explosions and they are pretty muted afairs. If I had not known what it was I would have thought something large like a cupboard was dropped next door. Still, there has been very little progress even with the explosives. The buggers you see in the picture above actually fit into the bunker below as during the summer 2 of them were in there removing support in the home the ceiling would collapse. I really kept thinking that perhaps the US air force should be asked to come and try one of their guided bunker busters but they knocked that idea on the head wisely realising that the Americans would miss and hit a building in another quarter of Munich.
I need to do some checking on what this building actually was. I never realised that concrete would be so resistant to the hammering this site has been receiving bu there you have it: The Germans build to last.
Comments
Post a Comment