Academician Melnikov Institute of Comprehensive Exploitation of Mineral Resources—IPKON, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

A. A. Dobrynin, Leading Researcher, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, pirovzryv@mail.ru

Yunyaginsky Coal Mine, Vorkuta, Russia
M. S. Ortlib, Chief Engineer
M. V. Kleimenov, Head of Blasting

Mines, sooner or later, cease to exist, therefore, it is necessary to dismantle abandoned infrastructure buildings so that no social problems might arise. In order to avoid possible tragedies associated with people visiting the building of the ventilation shaft at the closed Severnaya Mine in Vorkuta, it was decided to perform explosive demolition with involvement of the mine specialists in the field of blasting technologies. The ventilation shaft building was put into operation in 1991. The building is a single tower-type parallelepiped 18.0×21.0×67.8 m. The frame is prefabricated, manufactured of factory-made metal structures and monolithic reinforced concrete floors. During inspection of the building by specialists from JSC Vorkutaugol and IPKON RAS, it was decided to provide explosive detonation of the building at the floor level located at 14.4 m. The implementation of this solution significantly accelerated the work, because it was possible to avoid manual cutting, dismantling and removal of a large number of massive equipment, and various metal and reinforced concrete structures and materials located in the lower part of the building. The Severnaya Mine was a class 1 hazardous production facility, and during blasting operations, the possibility of methane release in underground roadways adjacent directly to the ventilation shaft under the building being demolished was as like as not, therefore, air sampling and monitoring was undertaken to avoid possible accidents at the levels of 0 and 14.4 m, and shot-firers had gas analyzers. As world practice shows, the safest, most effective and most expeditious way to dismantle various tall and massive structures is blasting, which is being studied and applied insufficiently in Russia, although blasting technologies are being improved all over the world, including building dismantling.

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