Six miles of detonator cords, 4,800 pounds of dynamite, and another mile of wire connections — this is the massive force it took to turn Atlanta’s Georgia Dome into a smoking pile of rubble on Monday morning. The grand coliseum hosted the 1996 Olympics and has been home to the Atlanta Falcons for years, but when it was replaced by the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, city officials decided it was time for it to go. The problem was that downtown Atlanta isn’t exactly an open field, and plenty of other buildings could be damaged if the city had taken a wrecking ball to the Georgia Dome.
That’s where implosion comes in.
Instead of bashing away at the Georgia Dome like a piñata, city authorities used a cleaner, more elegant approach. In an implosion, explosive devices take out a building’s structural supports, and the weight of the building does the rest. If all goes according to plan, the force of the building falling in on itself helps to further demolish any large pieces into rubble. This means the only thing left to do is clean up the pieces.
The distance shots of the dome’s implosion may make it look like the dome was intact right up until it crumbled, but in fact, demolition experts had been preparing the structure for months. They’d disassembled the interior of the bowl, leaving it looking more like the ruins of the Roman Coliseum than a modern stadium. All the ramps, offices, vendor booths, interior walls, and seats had been gutted in advance, leaving nothing behind but the massive structure and its architectural supports. The rubble from this disassembly was piled in the middle of the bowl.
“Gravity plays a major role,” Rick Cuppetilli, the senior project manager, told Georgia Public Broadcasting in the days leading up to the implosion. “Our last final steps we’re doing right now, we just take out some key ingredients and use the weight of the upper concrete ring and of the columns to fold everything in.”
To put it simply, the structural components of a building, whether a house or a stadium, hold it up in the face of gravity. When the weight-bearing components are suddenly removed, the imbalance causes gravity to find equilibrium. In the case of the Georgia Dome, that equilibrium was found when the entire structure collapsed inward as the 4,800 pounds of strategically placed dynamite detonated simultaneously.
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"Kilele cha milima sita ya kamba za detonator, pauni 4,800 za dynamite, na maili nyingine ya viunganishi vya waya - hii ni nguvu kubwa ilichukua kugeuza Atlanta Georgia Dome kuwa rundo la moshi la mabaki Jumatatu asubuhi. """ Uwanja huo ulikuwa uwanja wa michezo wa Olimpiki wa 1996 na umekuwa ukikaribishwa na timu ya Atlanta Falcons kwa miaka mingi, lakini wakati ulipobadilishwa na uwanja wa Mercedes-Benz, maafisa wa jiji waliamua ni wakati wa kuondoa uwanja huo. Tatizo lilikuwa kwamba katikati mwa jiji la Atlanta si uwanja wazi, na majengo mengine mengi yangeweza kuharibiwa ikiwa jiji lingechukua mpira wa kuharibu kwenye Georgia Dome. Hapo ndipo mlipuko unapoingia. Badala ya kushambulia Georgia Dome kama piñata, mamlaka za jiji zilitumia mbinu safi zaidi, yenye kupendeza zaidi. Katika mlipuko, vifaa vya kulipuka huondoa misingi ya ujenzi wa jengo, na uzito wa jengo hufanya yale mengine. Ikiwa kila kitu kinaenda kulingana na mpango, nguvu ya jengo kuanguka juu yake mwenyewe husaidia kuharibu zaidi vipande vyovyote vikubwa katika mabaki. Hii inamaanisha kwamba jambo pekee linalobaki ni kusafisha vipande hivyo. Picha za mbali za mlipuko wa dome zinaweza kuifanya ionekane kama dome ilikuwa imara hadi ilipovunjika, lakini kwa kweli, wataalamu wa uharibifu walikuwa wakitayarisha muundo huo kwa miezi. Walikuwa wamevunja-vunja sehemu ya ndani ya bakuli hilo, na hivyo kulifanya liwe kama magofu ya Uwanja wa michezo wa Roma kuliko uwanja wa kisasa. Vituo vyote, ofisi, vibanda vya wauzaji, kuta za ndani, na viti vilikuwa vimeharibiwa mapema, bila kuacha chochote isipokuwa jengo kubwa na misingi yake ya usanifu. Vipande vya magofu vilivyotokana na kuvunjwa-vunjwa huko vilikusanywa katikati ya bakuli hilo. "Gravity ina jukumu kubwa", Rick Cuppetilli, meneja mwandamizi wa mradi, aliiambia Georgia Public Broadcasting katika siku zilizoongoza kwa mlipuko. """Hatua zetu za mwisho tunazofanya sasa hivi, tunachukua tu viungo muhimu na kutumia uzito wa pete ya juu ya saruji na nguzo ili kukunja kila kitu ndani, kwa kusema kwa urahisi, sehemu za muundo wa jengo, iwe nyumba au uwanja, huishikilia mbele ya mvuto." Vipengele vinavyoshikilia uzito vinapoondolewa ghafula, ukosefu wa usawaziko husababisha nguvu ya uvutano ipate usawaziko. Katika kesi ya Georgia Dome, usawa huo ulipatikana wakati muundo mzima ulipoanguka ndani wakati pauni 4,800 za dynamite zilizowekwa kimkakati zilipolipuka wakati huo huo. Hivi karibuni, ulimwengu utakuwa na nyumba za bei nafuu zilizochapishwa kwa 3D.