“A 122-year-old, 6,200 tonne building in Zurich is being moved 60 metres westward (over two days) to make way for the expansion of a nearby railway.”
- BBC, 22 May 2012
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“Need to demolish a house in the US? Rent a tank.
A tank has been hired to demolish a house which was scheduled to come down in Kasota, Minnesota.
The job was accomplished in less than 30 minutes.”
- BBC, 3 May 2012
Was the building lifted up with just the pinky balloons? lol…
That’s what they told the kids.
Why would you need a tank to demolish a paper box?
1. It’s a Yanqui cultural thang.
2. It makes for better TV.
3. They’re actually easier to locate/hire than a CAT D9.
4. Yanquis with an M60 endorsement on their state DL are… Ubiquitous.
When I left Zurich in 2007 – I had my going away party at Gleis 9 (it’s the bar which is located in this building). I know if very very well . . Wow!! Under the building right now is actually the parking lot entrance for the Cityport office next door. Tough to imagine how they did this!!
Another comment on the Swiss Building. I worked next door for 5 years and watched them “demolish” the building in behind which was likely similar construction quality. The Swiss build things to stand up for 500 years so a 122 year old building is quite modern. The one behind took 18 months to demolish using machinery. It was unbelievable, especially with all the reinforced concrete. It will be interesting to see it again in the Summer on my next trip. If I had not seen it here first, I may have been somewhat surprised to see it had moved down on top of where the road used to be.
Thanks for all the ‘colour’ ZRH… great stuff.
Yeah, it occurred to me that some folks would revisit after time away and have a “…….wait a minute!” experience.
They’re just not building tanks like they used to…as a former medic who served in the former Yugoslavia, I can tell you (from what I saw) it used to take less than 30 seconds for a tank to destroy a house. 30 minutes! That is one solid house.
hahaha
Thanks for this unexpected perspective.