A demolition contractor imploded a 2,000-ft-tall structural-steel tower on Sept. 20 in Elizabethtown, N.C. The structure, the tallest in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River, had been used as a Raycom Media communications tower but became obsolete in 2008 when television station WECT switched its broadcast to digital transmission from analog.
“It’s far and away the tallest tower ever taken down by explosives,” says Mark Loizeaux, president of Controlled Demolitions Inc. (CDI). The Phoenix, Md.-based contractor took the tower down pro bono. The implosion surpassed the firm's previous record by 500 ft, he says.