Incidents of buildings collapsing into roads or because the work has rendered the structure unstable during demolition works have resulted in emergency road closures. This has necessitated interventions by authorities to deal with dangerous structures.

Recently, during demolition work on a town centre site, a building collapsed.

It breached the hoarding around the site, the front elevation falling onto the road and it was only by good luck that both the highway and footpath were empty.

The public road was closed for a period following the incident and the collapse became the subject of an investigation by HSE.

Clients, contractors and other stakeholders need to thoroughly plan, manage, and monitor all demolition work. HSE’s website has guidance on: