Emergency Demolition of Catherine’s Knob Tower - Controlled Demolition, Inc.

Monongalia County HSEM & MECCA 9-1-1 of Morgantown, West Virginia retained the consulting services of Marion Dougherty of Premier Construction Group, LLC (PCG) who, by extension, recommended the structural consulting services of Mark Malouf, principal of Malouf Engineering International (MEI), to asses observed structural problems with a 480’ guyed communications tower located on Catherine’s Knob near Fairview, West Virginia. That MEI assessment determined that the tower had “structurally failed” and was in imminent danger of collapse, at least partially, due to the observed damage from water which had previously frozen inside the legs of the tower.
Monongalia County instructed Premier Construction to proceed with the emergency demolition of the tower given the expected below freezing temperatures at the site that would have further compromised the structure if additional water had collected in the legs since last winter.
When Randy Orchard of Installtek Communications, LLC, the tower demolition contractor selected by PCG, surveyed the structure toward preparing a demolition plan and proposal, he quickly determined that the condition of the tower presented too great a risk to his personnel using traditional tower dismantling/demolition methods.
PCG contacted Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI) of Phoenix, Maryland, USA to perform the emergency preparation for and remote explosives felling of the structure. Using specialty explosives held in stock for emergency projects such as this, CDI’s three (3) man crew mobilized to the site and performed preparations for and the successful felling of the damaged, 480’ tall guyed structure in less than three (3) hours on Monday, November 16, 2020.
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[@innercityprepper]

It must have been an emergency when a 10 count only took 7 seconds!

[@ricknelson947]

As a Radio tech, I’ve been working in tower buildings since 1984. This confirmed to me how safe I would be in one of those reinforced concrete buildings, if the tower came down while inside. Looks like it just left a couple of scuff marks on the roof edges.👍 nice work

[@puzzLEGO]

Can’t wait for the channel ‘uncontrolled demolition inc’

[@Mikelica69]

xD

[@vladimpaler9274]

😝

[@timekillerOE]

Next week, 6 homeless guys armed with a box of dynamite vs a skycrapper.

[@zephrizi9034]

It's always impressed me how all that weight is on one tiny little bolt on a concrete pad and how well guying works to hold it all up.

[@devherrick5775]

Impressive but freaky upon first climbing

[@theconnorhouston14]

I was actually across the valley on a tower myself in Fairview doing a wave 2 upgrade and got to see this live. Incredible work.

[@robgrey6183]

Demolition crew: "Our work here is done". Cutting torch guy: "Job security till Christmas".

[@atoka2206]

I can't imagine how much tenstion stress built up in those struts bending over the hill I sure don't want to get hit in the face by that lol

[@zlozlozlo]

Poor Catherine, they made a short work of her knob.

[@salvadormaduro587]

There are probably not many Catherine’s with a knob.

[@TheNamesArif]

looks like she's finally finished

[@scootscootriot1020]

It’s amazing that you can have a (small) crew arrive with emergency stock and plan and fell something like this before lunchtime. You guys are the best.

[@railroadjim]

Nicely dropped as usual! Crazy that the failure was caused by water intrusion, as I would imagine that has to be a known issue to be dealt with on all of these towers.

[@Sparky-ov1ot]

1.20 nice solid built shed, took weight of tower no problem.

[@willynebula6193]

What makes this a great video, is that it has a detailed description of why this had to be brought down. Good job in and on the video.

[@jaaykaay]

"Hey boss, Catherine's knob's gone.." *"Well if that's what she wanted"*

[@JackMellor498]

Catherine’s Knob eh? Ahem ahem...as a Brit I cannot stress how differently that goes down...bloody wonderful 😂

[@chouseification]

Considering it's an old term that came over with the colonists, it shouldn't be too confusing. Yes, in modern English it means a hummer, but in their English it meant "hill". It shows up a lot in New England down through hillbilly country, but not so much in the rest of the US.

[@KillingDeadThings]

I love all the different capture angles. How different it appears to collapse from each angle is surprising. The first shot is sweet with the tower moving before the explosion sound reaches us.

[@rdwatson]

Impressive that the top of the tower landed right next to the bottom at 1:27

[@irok1]

That's when you know it's a good drop

[@Mikelica69]

True

[@GamerMason123]

Not sure how to explain it especially in scientific explanation, but I'm pretty sure since the center of gravity and the way to the tower falls that the top should ultimately not move essentially.

[@Ocker3]

Yup, I reckon they use this as one of their promo videos, folding something in half on itself has to make it much easier to chop up and cart away, without falling in your neighbour's yard :)

[@rudylittlewolf]

I sure would like to have those antennas that are on those towers after demolition!

[@ThatOldStoner]

I thought the video title should be "how to make a ham cry".

[@KnutNukem]

1:25 That was cinematic level precision.

[@jeniferbalansag5815]

Lullaby songs

[@timslager5966]

Your crews are fantastic and never cease to amaze me. Keep up the great work 👍 👍

[@greglinski2208]

When my son was about 11 years old he entered a Jaycee Relay Race. He’d never ran track before and didn’t know everybody wore shorts. He came in jeans, to everyone’s amusement. He ran the last leg for his team - and came away the fastest runner of the day, and made up considerable distance to win. This video made me think of that day. How I wish I had been able to see it, instead of only hear and read about it. I was a single mom and had to work. My son was an amazing athlete. ❤️

[@dennyfrontier]

I like how it politely fell on the little building and didnt hurt it

[@localcrew]

Those were some great angles. Thanks for posting.

[@markybear92840]

You guys are really great at your job. I still remember a documentary of when you felled the Travelers Building in Boston. How amazing the work you do!

[@exogator]

The dude doing the countdown needs to rethink why he's actually counting down, he's acting like it's just to say all the numbers between 10 and 0. He should be treating it like someone's running for their life and he's giving them a short window to escape.

[@Marauder1981]

Wow, the engineers in the demolition team did an ace job. Well done!

[@Akula114]

Excellent job! I loved the shot of the base as the uppermost antennae slammed into the ground right next to it.

[@oisiaa]

That shed is SOLID! Didn't even flinch when the tower touched it!

[@csspezzzz]

As a Brit, the name of this tower is hillarious.

[@Ellarian_Liara]

her 450 ft stiffy was explosive

[@minusplus2023youtuber]

The way you described the reason behind the demolition reminded me of something from Life After People. The thing being water logged.

[@rumfordc]

1:15 anyone else think this building was going to get pulverized and then feel dumb?

[@wspencerwatkins]

Really great footage, I love the multiple angles, especially the view from right at the bottom

[@hnccox]

Just read the description, less than three hours from prepping to demo, damn. Impressed 👍🏻

[@jasonguzman564]

Perfect demo as always 👌

[@Eyes0penNoFear]

Less than 3 hours from start to finish! That's some impressive work.

[@ScrewThisGlueThat]

Absolutely Amazing and a "Perfect Landing". I like it when a plan comes together...lol

[@JoeyLovesTrains]

1:21 laughed when I realized how light the tower was. Kinda assumed it would destroy the building, but no

[@magicalfetus729]

Yeah, it’s just aluminum.

[@harrickvharrick3957]

The tower came down like a work of art

[@Quadflash]

Beautiful engineering and execution

[@stefangilzene6083]

Loads of respect for CDI. Another fantastic demo! Precise AF!

[@BigSteve735]

Cdi that’s awesome I was going thru all the videos to see if you guys had imploded any of the stuff around where I’m from and then found this one this tower was only a few miles from where I grew up! As always awesome job!!!

[@shannon9993]

I'm from near Phoenix, MD and it's pretty neat to see this stuff!

[@jonathannorup3788]

Its a sad day for the lose of a communication tower but that tower definitely gad to come down . Nice job and glad no one was injured

[@dutch5501]

Excellent work!

[@gungadinn]

Well done guys. Looks like the OSB building survived the blast and tower felling unscathed.

[@hoobaguy4311]

Those radios on the top are worth a fortune. I bought a storage unit for $200 and it ended up being full of 4g and 5g radios, high power equipment, everything on that tower basically. I sold it back to AT&T and made a substantial return. Best day of my life so far!

[@JeffReeves]

Sick AW11 in your profile pic. I'm willing to bet the sales to AT&T *almost* made up for car project costs lol

[@seantaggart7382]

I love how you took down something that was gonna fall down to prevent harming others

[@dentalnovember]

Great job pivoting off of that brick structure and not even breaking it. Looks like it altered the center of gravity to create the breaking point on the tower sending it back at you. I bet this was done purposely because I did something similar once cutting down a tree.

[@jonmiguel]

Never even considered the "emergency demolition" of a tower before. Fascinating.

[@JungleYT]

*Brilliant work... Wow! How did they keep the elements vertical like that???*

[@jake-fj2zi]

why is this so terrifying

[@nozrep]

fascinating! One of the coolest things I ever got to see live was when CDI was demo-ing an old decommissioned powerplant in Webster, TX, and my employers, as separate subcontractors, were tasked with saving and transporting the still good to use massive industrial transformers. Got to watch the workers torch triangles into the structural steel columns and then they literally pulled the structure down with their excavators!

[@AdamSteidl]

Random recommended video for last week or two, time to watch it I suppose. Nice job.

[@Michael-fr6il]

This was executed really well.

[@davidsaks1244]

Seen from some great new angles

[@sledgedragon2677]

This is literally a Battlefield levolution

[@twiglet2214]

Ok guys thanks for your support !

[@donaldparlettjr3295]

These guys are the pros when it comes to demolition

[@richshoemaker1707]

Awesome, good work everyone.

[@japanshungry5964]

Nice demolition the way it fell was amazing

[@TIANIC121]

Hi

[@tomatoking8090]

Dag..those boys are good. Didn't even damage the control House and the power line was a challenge also...good job.

[@dieterdietert7232]

Its amazing how small the actual surface is thats attached to the concrete. looks like a postcard. really amazing.

[@crawlinkingsnakegaming9794]

It's not attached. There is a round pin sticking up from the concrete and the base of the tower has a plate with a hole large enough for the pin to fit in. Tower is just sitting on the pin. Given the right conditions, guide towers have been know to bounce and jump off the ground. -old tower hand here

[@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606]

I’m impressed by how much the tower flexed before ultimately breaking apart, whoever designed that aspect of it needs a pat on the back

[@SopwithTheCamel]

Always a pleasure to watch professional’s at work.

[@StevenCasper]

Beautiful and safely done.

[@Renville80]

That’s a lot of expensive equipment to write off.

[@chris_A8502]

Skilled work guys 👍

[@tiredoldmechanic1791]

Another great job.

[@jacquesdeladurantaye9513]

You keept the video natural that was .... SO PERFECT IT WAS MAGNIFICENT WOW !!! 😎

[@Jacey2001]

Amazing how the top landed almost perfectly at the base

[@paulallen9150]

Whoever built the little structure that it landed on deserves a medal

[@grandinosour]

That building is steel and solid concrete so the communication systems can continue operations during most types of distruction.

[@deanproctor2690]

Having the top land right where the base was….. friggin nailed it.

[@PANCAKEMINEZZ]

"Look, the elevator! It coming down... Beaver for impact!" - a marine in the Uplift Preserve in New Mombasa

[@johngullo9420]

Cool video! You guys (and gals) are the gold standard when it comes to demolitions. South Padre Island and the RCA Dome were proof. 😀

[@UtubeH8tr]

imagine that in a videogame your climbing a radio tower to fix it and suddenly in the distance you see them dropping one by one in succession towards you.

[@MontegaB]

That's crazy to be able to land the antennas inside the perimeter fence. Well done. Did they hook up their own cables up the tower to get it to fold like that?

[@SatelliteYL]

Wow that was pretty much perfect, the top landed right on the bottom. Nice

[@telegraph_hill]

setting up all the cameras was probably the most time consuming part of the job! thanks for starting the video with the final countdown... i hate vids that stat with 20 mins of prattle. i formative comments, too!

[@davidschick6951]

It's kind of elegant, in a way, to see a tower gently leaning after the first explosion but before it breaks.

[@canadianpatriot2891]

Excellent job! 👍🏻

[@ke6gwf]

My, what a tangled web CDI leaves!

[@louielouiepks]

It would be interesting to see the damaged area on the tower before demolition.

[@frenchy6254]

Being a known problem, could they not have drained the water from the structure to then mitigate any further freezing/expansion problems?

[@noaht5191]

I love how it bounced off the roof of that building like it weighed about 2 pounds.

[@rugbynimbus]

1:20 - To hear this thing falling sound like a drunk fighting to unfold an aluminum lawn chair was legitimately a shock.

[@castronomy]

Is the mast very light or the building very strong? Looked like it wasn't stressed at all when hit :D

[@SLO-Ride]

I used to put up guidewire towers for long distance telephone (early 1980's). This was a rather soothing to watching one come down!

[@Mirandorl]

Was the counter-buckling deliberate or just lucky? Looked like the weight of the antenna plus a little wind helped push the top section the other way.

[@TheOriginalBubster]

They really know how to make a knob go down well

[@Theshinytrumpet]

it is so cool, you can see the tower begin to fall before you hear the explosives

[@vertikalohigh9583]

That was the exact moment I lost cellphone coverage

[@geebee7529]

Kind of funny how the very top of the tower ends up right next to the very bottom like that.

[@nickg8875]

What carrier tower was that for?

[@shadetreader]

Exquisite precision!

[@lmartinson6963]

The tower looks really heavy from a distance, but in the close-up it looks light. It almost looks and sounds like a ladder falling over.

[@Intamin]

It's interesting how relatively intact the antennae are when the tower comes down fully. I wonder if you could ride it down and survive...probably!

[@dtrotteryt]

That was SICK.

[@valkman761]

Bunch of wires from one side of the tower are exploded, meanwhile everyone is amazed about the accuracy of the demolition.

[@rickoc3022]

How long did it take to clear out the debris?

[@Chocolatnave123]

the angle made it look like it fell in on itself in one place, as opposed to falling over like it did

[@6Twisted]

That giant thing is held up by that little tip. Damn.

[@borisobrucicov8630]

That was awesome.