Video captures all the action of overnight possession.

On Monday night, crews began the night-time demolition of the old Norwalk Boulevard/San Antonio Drive bridge.

This excellent video from Caltrans captures the best of the action:

Housing association opens gate on one of UK’s biggest demolition contracts of 2017.

Shoreline Housing Partnership is pressing ahead with plans to demolish six blocks of flats in Grimsby’s East Marsh area.

According to construction news portal Construction Enquirer, the housing group has started the hunt for suitable demolition contractors to do the job, which is set to be one of the biggest demolition contracts let this year.

The housing charity said renovating the six blocks would not be cost-effective and would still only provide buildings with the same energy efficiency as when they were first built.

A firm decision has yet to be taken on whether to opt for explosive demolition or tear down.

It is envisaged that just Tennyson House is suitable for explosive demolition, although contractors are open to submit explosive demolition proposals for another four blocks – Albion House, Nelson House, Garibaldi House and Thesiger House.

The sixth Bevan House is too close to an existing building, meaning it will be demolished using mechanical means.

Read more here.

Bridge falls as cameras roll.

Earlier this week in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, a section of a 64-year old bridge being torn down to make way for a new structure unexpectedly collapsed, endangering the Union Pacific tracks which run beneath it.

Demolition crews had been working on the bridge since Monday, taking down the Grand Avenue bridge piece by piece.

Around 8 pm crews at the south end of the bridge were pulling a girder out of the bridge when it got hung up on an anchor on a middle pier, between Seventh Street and the edge of the Colorado River, said Police Chief Terry Wilson. The pier buckled and then collapsed. The video below shows the collapse as captured on a live stream set up by Colorado Mountain College, located nearby.

Read more here, or view the astonishing video below:

48 hours to remove Arizona bridge airport bridge.

This new video captures the high-speed removal of a road bridge serving the Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona.

Bridge removal in 48 hours from Monroe Film on Vimeo.

Coleman and Company salvage historic coat of arms.

The Coleman & Company team has demonstrated its recovery and restoration expertise by carefully removing, preserving and transporting a historic frieze and coat of arms from an Edwardian tram garage in Wolverhampton.

Built in 1902 and dramatically extended in the 1970s to accommodate a busy bus garage, Cleveland Road Tramway Depot in Wolverhampton, has been demolished as part of the city’s expansive urban redevelopment programme.

Coleman & Company was appointed as the main demolition contractor on the site and our team worked closely with specialists from the Black Country Living Museum to develop a method statement covering the safe and effective extraction and transportation of the historic sculptured stone.

Once the frieze and coat of arms have been assessed by experts at the museum, they will be reinstated on the outside of the museum’s Albion Tram Depot, for future generations to enjoy.

Coleman & Company Helps Preserve a Piece of Wolverhampton History from The Coleman Group on Vimeo.

Thieves use digger to steal ATM in ultimate smash and grab.

To my mind, a telescopic handler is not a demolition machine. But having seen the following video, I may have to rethink my stance.

A gang of thieves used a telehandler to smash the front of a shop in Derbyshire, grab the ATM machine and then quickly make their escape.

It’s messy, it’s highly illegal; but you have to admit. It’s pretty bloody efficient too:

Demolition plans submitted could bring curtain down on Scarborough theatre.

Scarborough Council has submitted the planning application needed to demolish the Futurist theatre. The authority voted by a margin of one in January to knock down the historic venue.

This decision was met with protests, with local residents expressing concerns that the demolition could destabilise the cliff it is on – and the homes situated above it. Dr Bill Murphy, University of Leeds engineer geologist, said the coastline had “stability problems” with soft rocks at the surface deposited by glacial tills 1800 years ago.

The council said demolition would not start until it was satisfied it could be done without destabilising the cliff or surrounding area.

Since then, ground investigation works have been carried out by the contractor Willmott Dixon and now the final plan has been submitted to the council’s planning department.

The plans only relate to the demolition, not the potential £20 million Flamingo Land attraction which is slated to replace it. That will require a separate application in the future.

The demolition is expected to cost the council around £4 million.

Read more here.

Breaker goes to work high above Edinburgh.

The demolition of the St James Centre in the heart of Edinburgh has been a long time coming; but work is now underway. And locals are being treated tot he spectacle of a high reach excavator equipped with a hydraulic breaker working high above the city centre.

Tendering opening soon for demolition of Scottish reactor.

Companies are being invited to bid for a contract to demolish the Dounreay Materials Test Reactor (DMTR) in Scotland. A contract notice will appear in the Official Journal of the European Union for the project estimated to be worth around £7 million ($9 million) over three years. A contractor is expected to be appointed in the first half of 2018.

DMTR, which became Scotland’s first operational reactor in 1958, tested the effects of irradiation on metals and was the only reactor on the site to use heavy water instead of liquid metal as a coolant. First criticality was achieved in a test rig known as ZETR (zero energy test reactor) located alongside DMTR on 13 August 1957.

Bill Lambie, project manager at Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL), said today: “This month we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the first criticality in Scotland, which took place in a temporary test rig. This was an historic moment because it put Dounreay on the map as the UK’s centre of fast reactor research, and encouraged the local population to acquire scientific skills and abilities that have been associated with the area ever since.”

DSRL is now poised to demolish its successor and the oldest reactor on the site. Lambie said: “The removal of DMTR from the skyline will be a significant step for Dounreay, and will be a real and visible sign of the decommissioning progress being made.”

Read more here.

Tower blocks tumble as China carries out biggest ever blast.

36 tower blocks fell in a simultaneous blast in China last week. Using 2.5 tonnes of explosives, Chinese contractors turned a million square feet of real estate into so much rubble in just 20 seconds.

In fact, the buildings fell with such speed that the cameraman struggled to keep up!