Yes, the explosives we use can be extremely loud...particularly the linear shaped charges as they're "exposed" (simply wired to the outside of the steel flange of the H-column and covered with the box, fence, fabric...) as compared to the dynamite which is "embedded" in the drilled boreholes inside the columns. We make every attempt to keep the dBL and air overpressure generated by the detonation of the explosives to a minimum by using delays throughout the structure. The PRIMARY delays are used to control which explosive detonates when, thereby giving us the control we need to move the structure in the desired direction at the desired rate. These delays are typically somewhere between 350 milliseconds and 500 milliseconds in length. The SECONDARY delays are used SOLELY to "break up" this noise and air overpressure. The shortest delay made of this nature is 9 milliseconds...the minimum delay required to achieve this "break-up"...now we're getting into some major math with regards of seismic info, hertz, dbA versus dBL, etc. Trust me; we've got it down to a science ;)
Lastly, you should strongly urge these people to watch just ONE documentary that's been produced over the years on one of our projects. Perhaps then they could grasp the days, weeks, and sometimes MONTHS that goes into the planning, preparation and execution of even the simplest of jobs, not to mention the labor-intensive explosives-handling work that's put in by crews of up to 20 people dependant on the job!!
Here's a link to an article might find helpful in understanding all the "implosion-ese" I've used above. Yes, I know, it's not about one of OUR jobs, but it's a decent article in terms of the technical mumbo-jumbo: http://science.howstuffworks.com/building-implosion1.htm
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