I am sure most of you know the round green building at the corner of old Salmiya on Salem Mubarek Street. If you don’t its an old tall circular shaped building that is sadly being demolished. Now funny thing is how they’re demolishing it. It seems using a crane they lifted and placed a bulldozer on top of the building and that truck has been destroying the building bit by bit from the top to the bottom. That has to be more dangerous than crab fishing. Now the million dollar question is… how does the bulldozer driver get down at the end of the day?
36 replies on “From the top down”
i think he sleeps there 🙂
How did they get that heavy machine up there to begin with?
he takes the stairs duuh 😛
the demolition of this building is another embarassing loss of architectural legacy for kuwait. i think officials will only be happy once they live in crystal skyscrapers. its so ridiculous that this happens…its all about greed, lets see what kind of building comes up in its place and what businesses are on the waiting list to grab the property. come on people, stand up for shit.
there goes my hopes of watching a building explode 🙁
totally agree with you Victoria.
@Victoria
I think they will build another mall over there. which means we will have more fast food chains opening and more fat people in Kuwait.
The ministry of interior won’t let anyone bring explosives for demolishing of buildings. Our engineering firm was a consultant on demolishing one of the oldest and largest building in Kuwait few years ago and I was assigned the task of following up. The contractor couldn’t get the MOI to approve to use dynamite even though the whole process was going to be handled by a US firm.
There must be some temporary scaffolding/staircase on the other side?
he just uses the stair or whatever dugh?
i see that bulldozer woking at the top of the building everyday i use to think how the hell that heavy bulldozer got up there. about the person hr probably jumps from there 🙂
Just for the records , that aeems like an excavetor
& not a bulldozer !!
Use the steps..
But its really sad to remove an iconic building that has been there for nearly 30 years. Can they not keep it and create a brand name?
Its just sad.
@ Ghos1-It would implode and not explode.
How do they get rid of the rubble from the top?
They must be using the same crane to put him up and bring him down…
they should blow it up with some dynamite!!
Taking the excavator to the top is a n easy job. The question is: “How on earth this thing is approaved? It is so dangerous for the driver if something happens during the demolition!!
isnt it weird that the roof is holding the excavator? and how do they take it to the next floor after he is done destroying the floor he is on? does he just drive down a rubble ramp?
he shall not come down till the entire building is demolished!
Kuwait is only 100 years behind the rest of the world! Of COURSE they can’t use explosives – that would require “planning” (a word not found in the local dialect). One foreign national worker on one bulldozer might take a month or two to complete the task of demolishion, but he’s waaaay cheaper than a stick of C4.
Crab fishing isn’t dangerous. 🙂 We used to do it by knotting a piece of chicken at the end of a string, dangling it off a bridge, and hauling up the crabs. Just a little bit of trivia for you. They stab them in Kuwait, right? While walking through the muck in plastic sandals?
@Q80: if you’ve ever seen a construction site in Kuwait, you’ll know that workplace health & safety isn’t high on the priorities of these big companies. They probably care more about the bulldozer than the driver’s safety.
its not good for health being near this building
https://alblogy.com/?p=1753
what if the driver wants to go to toilet,?, and the rules are cannot come down till u finish work.
Imagine him driving an excavetor in that condition.
o.O
|| push the tempO.o||
“Of COURSE they can’t use explosives – that would require “planning” (a word not found in the local dialect).”
Hahaha aint that the truth.
Followed closely by the second word not found in local dialect: Maintenance.
🙂
Ergo demolition perhapsee?
nahh, ergonomics is the third word not found in local dialect 😛
i think they leave the bulldozer thing up there, but the guy goes home? theres always a small elevator thing built on scaffolding, so im guessing down there?
if not, they he must be an amazing rock climber..
There is no elevator or metal steps on the side. This is a building thats being demolished not constructed. The only thing I could think of is he comes down using the buildings original stairs but that would mean he would need to clear that path and make sure he doesn’t damage that area too much. All excess rocks get thrown off the side of the building.
Mark for the sake of your readers you need to go up there and ask the driver how it works !!
but how will Mark go up ?
1.crane
2.ladder
3.rope
4.climb
I don’t get it…how does he destroy the floor under the bulldozer?..space on which it stands right now!
I saw them do the same thing to a building down there on Gulf Road near the Safir hotel.
how does the bulldozer driver get down at the end of the day?
by steps
– the driver will stay on the truck(excavator) until all are done, and only allowed to leave if the truck needs refueling. 🙂
– to get down the truck, they will dismantle it piece-by-piece and re-assemble it on the next level. =)
And then there’s the wooden scaffolding they use on some buildings like they did back when they built The Pyramids.
Construction/demolition in Kuwait for ya.. Cheese and rice!
wow, ’tis the first time i saw a demolition using a heavy equipment on top of the building LOL! maybe the contractors thought it’s easier to do it from top down than from down to top hahaha!