Essex car park collapses during demolition

ADVERTISEMENT

A car park being demolished in Southend-on-Sea has collapsed bringing down scaffolding and showering neighbouring streets with debris.

Five floors of the multi-storey car park came down unexpectedly during work to clear the site to make way for a £30m library for South Essex College.

Local residents told the Southend Standard that rubble fell into the streets as scaffolding was dislodged.

One said: “There was a massive explosion. It felt like an earthquake. Out the back it was thick with dust. All the scaffolding had buckled outwards.”

Demolition contractor Elvanite is working with structural engineers to discover what caused the collapse.

Southend Council’s strategic projects manager, Mark Murphy, said: “There was a collapse involving five of the floors.

“In accordance with health and safety requirements, the site is fenced off by safety netting and scaffolding. This largely contained the effect of this incident, and because of it, no one was injured and there was no damage to vehicles or other buildings.”

The picture of the collapse is courtesy of Demolition News

Via: Construction Enq

Most popular ↑

Scaffolder ‘lucky to be alive’ after CCTV captures skylight fall

CCTV footage showing the moment a scaffolder fell through...

Nearly 80% of scaffold sites fail safety checks in German state

Authorities in the German state of Hesse have launched...

ScaffChamp future under review after successful Vilnius event

The future location of ScaffChamp is unclear after key...

RNDV crowned ScaffChamp champions again in Vilnius

RNDV has been crowned ScaffChamp 2026 champion after winning...

NASC safety report shows zero member fatalities as workforce passes 20,000

NASC contractor members recorded zero operative fatalities in 2025,...

Latest news

ADVERTISEMENT
More from
Latest articles

Layher UK brings open morning series to Livingston

Layher UK is bringing its regional open morning series to Scotland later this month,...

Scaffolder ‘lucky to be alive’ after CCTV captures skylight fall

CCTV footage showing the moment a scaffolder fell through a warehouse roof skylight has...

NASC safety report shows zero member fatalities as workforce passes 20,000

NASC contractor members recorded zero operative fatalities in 2025, according to the organisation’s latest...

ScaffChamp future under review after successful Vilnius event

The future location of ScaffChamp is unclear after key figures behind the international scaffolding...

Stepup expands OCTO access in Denmark through SST deal

Stepup Octo ApS has announced a new partnership with Danish scaffolding specialist SST ApS...

Nearly 80% of scaffold sites fail safety checks in German state

Authorities in the German state of Hesse have launched a week-long scaffold safety inspection...

RNDV crowned ScaffChamp champions again in Vilnius

RNDV has been crowned ScaffChamp 2026 champion after winning the international scaffolding competition for...

ScaffChamp 2026 gets underway in Vilnius

After Friday’s team draw and structure briefing, competitors are now putting planning into practice...