Implosion fells long-abandoned hospital.

Miami Beach’s South Shore Hospital, which has been abandoned for over a decade, came to the ground after an implosion yesterday morning.

Crews used a small number of explosives to take down the structure, and city of Miami Beach officials were warning residents of the traffic impacts and more.

Demolition to begin at disused Aberdeen school.

The demolition of a disused Aberdeen school is expected to start within a matter of weeks after a contract was awarded by the local authority.

Works at Kincorth Academy, which closed its doors in July, were initially planned to begin in October in order for the land to be used for a council housing development.

But it was not until February that Aberdeen City Council publicly offered up a contract of the work to potential contractors.

Nine organisations put forward bids to carry out the demolition with Glasgow-based firm George Beattie and Son selected as the preferred bidder.

The contract includes the removal of all the existing buildings, link bridges, asbestos, drainage and stairs.

A council spokesman said: “Following a successful tendering process a contractor has been appointed and will be starting on the site in the coming weeks.”

Read more here.

The Liebherr exhibition stand at Bauma once again raised the bar.

If Bauma is Digger Disneyland, then the Liebherr stand is Snow White’s Castle (appropriate given that the design of said castle is based upon the Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany).

Like that castle, the Liebherr stand looms over the entire Bauma showground; the logo on the slatted side of the four-storey, semi-permanent office block from which the company conducts its business every bit as recognisable as the castle backdrop to the Disney logo.

But don’t just take my word for it. Hit the play button below and let us walk you through what is likely to be the most impressive exhibition stand you’re ever likely to see.

Sixth explosive event at Scottish power station.

At 10am on 11 April 2019, power station demolition experts from Brown and Mason carried out the sixth and latest explosive demolition event at the Longannet power station in Scotland, felling Boiler Annex East.

Blast fells landmark bridge.

Missouri Department of Transportation crews demolished the old Route 47 Missouri River Bridge on April 11.

The historic landmark came down in Washington, Missouri around 10:30 am, local time.

Details of more than 70 alleged bribes revealed.

As the federal investigation into bribery and corruption surrounding Detroit’s $250 million demolition programme continues, two men are expected in court to face charges relating to more than $372,000.

Blast fells Florida cooling towers.

Two gigantic cooling towers in Jacksonville were imploded with 1,500 pounds of dynamite on Saturday.

The 141 metre high towers majestically became nothing but piles of dust after 30 years of standing tall in St. Johns River Power Park. Locals gathered near the site to watch the iconic towers crumble.

This demolition marks the complete closing of the power park, prompted by leaders from JEA, a Jacksonville-based electric utility company, and FPL, Florida Power & Light. These are the same entities that pulled together to fund the coal-powered plant in the 1980s.

Scaffolding collapses at site of new Merseyside Police HQ.

Is it just me or do you find yourself driving differently when you spot a police car in your rear view mirror? Your hands slide slowly to the 10 to 2 position, your right foot becomes somehow lighter and the speedometer suddenly registers a speed that is at least 1 mph less than the local speed limit.

So imagine how you’d feel if you ran a scaffolding company and you received a call to say that your company’s handiwork had collapsed on a project to create a new headquarters for Merseyside Police.

Well that’s precisely what happened last week when parts of a building due to be cleared to make way for the new £45 million Merseyside Police HQ collapsed into the street.

Scaffolding and debris from Grosvenor House, on Grosvenor Street behind St Anne Street Police Station, Everton was fenced off after the collapse. No-one was injured in the collapse.

The roof of the building appeared to have collapsed and a scaffolding frame fell away, landing on the roadside.

Kirk Scaffolding, the company providing scaffolding to the scheme, confirmed there had been no injuries but refused to comment on the incident.

A spokesman for construction firm Wilmott Dixon, which is managing the project, said: “At around 1pm we did have a minor scaffold collapse during demolition works, however no one was injured.

“The collapse was within our exclusion zone and has had no impact on the surrounding environment or community.”

While Bauma 2019 exhibitors pursued environmental excellence, visitors did not.

Digger Disneyland or unconquerable foot-slog across three quarters of Bavaria? Regardless of your personal take on the Bauma exhibition, there can be little question that last week’s iteration of the triennial event was not just the biggest but also the best. More than 3,700 exhibitors occupied 614,000 square metres of indoor and outdoor exhibition space and attracted visitors from an astonishing 200 countries around the world.

This was not just an exhibition: it was a celebration of man’s ingenuity; an acknowledgement of the industry’s ability to turn imagination into innovation; a global gathering of engineering excellence the likes of which has not seen before.

Against such an astonishing backdrop, it feels churlish and almost disrespectful to highlight any negatives. But regular readers of this newsletter know that this is my stock in trade and will likely expect nothing else. My first point, therefore, is not so much a criticism as an observation.

Within the vast, sprawling confines of the Messe Munchen exhibition centre, everything runs like clockwork and is the very epitome of German efficiency. When I registered for the show, I did so using my LinkedIn profile which automatically filled out my details and saved me time. Despite the vast daily crowds, I passed through the turnstiles more quickly here than I have ever done at the considerably smaller Hillhead show. Show signposting was faultless, staff were helpful and – thankfully – multi-lingual. And while they offered only a temporary respite from the endless hike around the show, a network of moving walkways offered at least some assistance.

All that being said, by my fourth day I was actively fighting the desire to punch in the head anyone that walked into frame while I was taking a photo; anyone that walked too slowly, stopped suddenly, or who changed direction without warning. I also have a personal issue with paying six Euros for an “apple juice” in which apples were less an ingredient and more a passing acquaintance of the coloured water within. But these are minor gripes of a renowned curmudgeon.

Outside the exhibition centre, however, it was a different story. Both Google Maps and the iOS version on my iPhone claimed that our Air BnB accommodation was a 12-minute drive away from the West entrance to the show. In five days, we never achieved it in under an hour. On the Tuesday night, it took nearer three. Roads were blocked in every conceivable direction by countless taxis and, although I am basing this purely on personal experience, it appeared that Uber cars had effectively been banned from the showground and were instead clogging up approach roads by double-parking while waiting for their passengers to navigate the ensuing chaos on foot.

Spare hotel rooms were about as common as hen’s teeth and any that could be found last-minute had tripled or even quadrupled their rates. You have to be pretty enthusiastic about plant and equipment to pay more than 400 Euros a night from something akin to a Travelodge.

According to a very quick Google search, Munich has a population of 1.4 million people. The influx of more than 50 percent more people for a week is always going to place a strain upon local infrastructure. But I left with the very real feeling that while the Messe Munchen can take Bauma in its stride, I am no longer convinced that Munich itself can do likewise.
As I said previously, that is merely an observation. My second criticism, however, is more than that. It is addressing a veritable herd of elephants in the room that everyone seems very eager to gloss over.

There were many themes at Bauma 2019, and telematics, automation and autonomous machine control were key among them.

But the over-riding theme was the way in which machines are fuelled and powered. Stage V regulations loom on the horizon like a gigantic clean-freak that is determined to ensure that even the most powerful machines in the industry run on nothing stronger than fairy breath. As a result, each manufacturer is forging its own path towards even greater engine cleanliness. During Bauma I saw electric, diesel electric, hybrid and even one machine that will soon run on bio-methane (or, as one wag in the crowd so eloquently put it “will be powered by farts”).
And that’s a good thing. Even the die-hards amongst us that still long for the roar of a smoky diesel engine know that ever-increasing levels of cleanliness is the right and responsible thing to do. There is just one small problem with that ambition.

As I said earlier, all these clean running machines and engines attracted more than 600,000 people; people that travelled from 200-odd countries around the world; people that will have taken planes, trains and automobiles to get there; people who would then spend several hours each day say in the rear seat of a gas-guzzling Mercedes taxi as they fought their way through the local traffic to the safe refuge of their over-priced hotel room.

Major manufacturers such as Case, Caterpillar, Hitachi, Komatsu, Liebherr, Volvo and a whole host of others have invested billions between them to make their machines as clean-running as current technology will possibly allow. And yet, for a week in Germany, much of that hard work was negated as owners, operators, enthusiasts, tyre-kickers and – of course – journalists descended upon Munich once more in whatever form of planet-destroying form of transport took their fancy.

Perhaps the greatest irony is this. Several manufacturers – including both Caterpillar and Doosan – demonstrated the ability to remotely-control a machine literally thousands of miles away. Those manufacturers have afforded us the ability to safely operate, monitor and maintain machines on the other side of the planet. Yet, for some reason, in order to evaluate or report upon those same machines, we still feel the need to travels thousands of miles to see them “in the flesh”, neatly polished and standing still in an exhibition hall.

The next Bauma is scheduled to take place in 2022. All things being equal, I will be there. But this time, I might just take a bicycle.

Beckham-backed group to demolish stadium to make way for training centre.

David Beckham’s planned Major League Soccer stadium in South Florida is another step closer to reality.

The Fort Lauderdale City Commission voted Tuesday night to enter into an interim agreement with Beckham’s group, one that will allow the MLS club to demolish Lockhart Stadium as a precursor to building a stadium of its own on that plot of land.

Mayor Dean Trantalis suggested to the commission that the agreement should come with financial assurances that the Beckham group will not simply demolish the existing stadium and then walk away from the project without building something in its place. Other commissioners argued that given the extremely tight timeline — Beckham’s group wants to begin play there in less than a year — the project must be permitted to start as soon as possible.

The vote was unanimous, 5-0. Beckham’s group will have 180 days to complete the demolition.

Beckham’s group — his team is called Inter Miami — plans to have a stadium in place on the Lockhart site in time to begin an inaugural MLS season in March 2020. Beckham has unsuccessfully tried for years to find a place to put a stadium in Miami, which is why his group announced plans last month to play its first two seasons in Fort Lauderdale.

Read more here.