page_title: Implosion of Radio Network House
section_title: Implosion
hierarchical_section_title: Implosion of Radio Network House / Implosion
caption_attribution_description: English: Radio Network House rubble.
context_page_description: The implosion of Radio Network House in 2012 was the first implosion used in New Zealand to demolish a building, and was a "test case" for the potential to use such a demolition method on similar buildings in Christchurch Central City that had been damaged in the 2011 earthquake. Like most other large buildings in central Christchurch, Radio Network House was damaged beyond repair in the 2011 earthquake, and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority added it to the demolition list in August 2011. In July 2012, it was announced that the building was going to be imploded, involving a specialist company from the United States with considerable experience in this type of work.
  The right to push the button for the implosion was put up for auction on Trade Me, and became that website's third most viewed auction. The winning bid of NZ$26,000 was made by a consortium of demolition contractors, who allowed the Child Cancer Foundation to nominate a six-year-old boy from Queenstown to trigger the event.
context_section_description: The demolition companies, on the day prior to the implosion, advised the public to stay away for health and safety reasons, and watch the proceedings on TV or the internet. Several television stations had live streams of the event, and The Press announced that they would post a video on their website shortly after the implosion. An exclusion zone was put in place to ensure that nobody would be within approximately 200 metres (660 ft) of the building. Despite the advice, thousands of onlookers filled the street on the morning of 5 August, a Sunday. Punctually at 8 am, a series of short explosions were heard, followed by another series a couple of seconds later. The building collapsed towards the north as planned, and the implosion manager from Controlled Demolition, Inc. said that it went a bit further than he had hoped, so he was lucky. The explosions were heard around Christchurch.
  One of CERA's objectives in approving the implosion was to find out how the soil behaved, as Radio Network House was built on one of the worst soils in Christchurch. Seismograph readings showed ground velocity of 12 mm/s, which is comparable to a large truck slowly driving across the demolition site. With any residual concerns about the performance of poor soils during building implosions removed, it will be much easier for other building owners to obtain consent from CERA. Further implosions are likely, with a representative from Controlled Demolition, Inc. describing the Christchurch market as a "target-rich environment". Only the Christchurch Central Police Station has since been demolished by implosion, in May 2015.
  The implosion attracted global attention, with media in Australia, Canada, Ireland, South Africa and the United States covering the event.
caption: Close up of the Radio Network House rubble showing the Newstalk ZB logo
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