Demolition of E. B. Fred Hall

 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison 

in the Summer and Fall of 2004

Wednesday, September 29

1: Progress is made on the new floor over the substation in the newer wing of Fred Hall.

2: The asbestos team goes to work on the roof of the newer wing, efficiently bagging up the offending material which had been found in abundance throughout Fred Hall – especially in the old section.

Thursday, September 30

3 through 17: Here was another captivating opportunity to watch Randy and the Komatsu doing major damage to Fred Hall. This afternoon much of the front of the older section was taken down, and these photos show a few examples of how this was accomplished.

During this session we saw another bit of macgyvering to weaken one of those green brick walls which actually provided a lot of structural support in the building. In Photo 9, the same water pipe that had been used in a similar situation (page 2, Photos 8-10) has been delivered by Jeff in the Bobcat and is being picked up by the Komatsu. (A magnified view is shown here.) In Photo 10, the pipe is used to poke holes in the wall from the side; one can see the business end of the pipe sticking out horizontally on the other side of the wall. And then with the machine bearing down from above (Photo 11), the wall and other support gives way and more of Fred Hall collapses.

In Photos 13 and 14, we see the Komatsu throttle one of the supporting concrete pillars, popping off the surrounding bricks and crunching the concrete down to its internal rebar. In Photo 15, the roof begins to collapse as the machine works on the next story down.

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