Considering my options following early morning visit designed to intimidate.

It is now almost two hours since two burly guys knocked on my front door and threatened me over some unnamed and unspecified thing that I have written here on DemolitionNews and/or on the DemolitionNews Facebook page.

The police have been informed and I have an incident number, but that offers very little in the way of reassurance. What if they come back? What if they’re on the next demolition site I visit? What if they’re waiting for me the next time I am walking home from the station alone?

I now find myself between a rock and a hard place. Do I ignore the threats and soldier on, editorial integrity intact, possibly inviting another less peaceful visit? Or do I simply bow out and allow the intimidation to win? To be 100 percent honest, I don’t actually know the answer to that question myself as yet.

For almost six years, I have worked tirelessly in and around the demolition business. I have worked weekends and long into the night to bring readers the very latest industry news. I single-handedly created the Demolition-Jobs.co.uk website to help demolition workers find employment. I have supported countless charitable causes to aid the industry and those that work within it. And in all that time, I have been threatened with a writ once (by a man who has his lawyer on speed dial); and printed just one retraction when I –admittedly – got my facts wrong.

I have embraced social media as I want (wanted…?) to be a part of the demolition industry, communicating with the operatives and machine operators just as much as with the directors and managers within the sector. As a result, my home address – the famed Demolition News Towers – is there for all to see.

And now this has happened.

Was I scared? You’re damn right I was scared. If the two guys were seeking to intimidate and belittle, they did their job perfectly.

But the over-riding feeling I have been left with is not one of fear. It is not that my editorial integrity has been questioned and threatened. It is not even that my home address is too visible.

The main feeling I have right now is do I really want to be associated with an industry in which such behaviour – condoned or otherwise – exists?

Even though it will have a direct and immediate impact upon my ability to financially support my family, I am going to take a day or two to mull over my options.

Until then, DemolitionNews will remain silent.

Bath Demolition gets to grips with former Ministry of Defence facility.

A former Ministry of Defence facility at Foxhill is being converted into a major new housing development for the residents of Bath.

And, appropriately, the initial demolition works at the 19 hectare Mulberry Park site are being undertaken by local contractor Bath Demolition.

Check out the superb “dipper view” footage from the 1.50 mark of the video below:

Unique viewpoint as Coleman and Company erases cooling towers.

Despite the oft-repeated “stay away” please from demolition contractor Coleman and Company, it seems that plenty of individuals and news media organisations still managed to get close enough to capture the epic blast at Didcot yesterday.

And one of the best films we have seen so far is this one wich is taken from high above the power station:

Armac reconfirms position as bridge busting supremo with weekend possession.

A bridge over Coventry’s ring road has been demolished in the latest milestone of a £59 million redevelopment.

West Bridge was removed on Sunday. The ring road was due to be shut from Saturday night until 05:00 on Monday between junctions five and seven.

The redevelopment, called Friargate, will include a new bridge linking the city centre and railway station.

Junction six will remain closed at most times until June 2015 while further construction takes place.

A nearby firm, however, said it feared it may fold before the work was completed, as it claimed the disruption had hit passing trade.

Read more here.

Coleman and Company carries out triple cooling tower blast.

After months of planning and weeks of preparation, the first three cooling towers at Didcot power station slid into oblivion following a blast in the early hours of this morning.

We will be bringing you more news on the long-awaited blast in due course; but here is the first raw footage from the site, courtesy of Coleman and Company:

LA drivers braced for another weekend of traffic chaos.

After ‘Carmageddon‘ and ‘Jamzilla’, motorists in Los Angeles are bracing for perhaps their worst weekend of road chaos ever.

Residents of a city famous for its attachment to cars and the daily gridlock that results have been warned that the ‘Century Crunch’ could “could screw everything up” for drivers.

Road closures around one of the main entrances to Los Angeles International Airport will be in place for 57 hours from Friday night while an old railroad bridge is demolished.

The closure at Century and Aviation Boulevard – a junction which sees 90,000 motorists every day – is likely to impact more than 200,000 passengers who are due to pass through LAX on 1,700 flights this weekend.

Officials have spent weeks trying to warn airport users of the impending traffic chaos and are urging people to allow extra time for their journey or use public transport.

Read more here.

The World Cup might be over but demolition work for the 2016 Olympic is still ongoing.

The Brazil 2014 World Cup is over. The Germans, predictably, are the World Champions; the Americans proved that they DO recognise more than one kind of football; Luis Suarez became the first player to require a muzzle; and – as is traditional – England returned home in ignominy and defeat.

And while the host nation’s hopes of glory were trampled under an unstoppable German onslaught in the semi-finals, the Brazilians proved that they are more than capable of hosting a global sporting event.

Which is just as well. For while the teams of the World Cup have long since waved goodbye to Rio and the other host cities, the Brazilian capital’s minds have already switched to the small matter of the 2016 Olympic Games that are scheduled to commence less than two years from now.

Against this background, demolition demand remains high as preparations gain momentum in the countdown to Rio 2016.

At the heart of that demolition demand is our good friend Fabio Bruno who is seemingly changing the Rio skyline and infrastructure network single-handed.

Fabio has very kindly sent us some spectacular video showing just some of the work taking place to ensure that Rio is ready.

Desfrutar!

DemolitionNews announces new used equipment joint venture with UK Plant Traders.

DemolitionNews.com is delighted to announce that it is joining forces with UK Plant Traders to bring readers a new level of service in the used equipment field. Within the next few days, UK Plant Traders will take over the provision of used equipment content on DemolitionNews in a move that is welcomed by both parties.

“We are delighted to have signed this joint venture with UK Plant Traders,” says DemolitionNews’ Mark Anthony. “We have been searching for some time for a company that could deliver in used equipment the same level of quality and user interaction that we provide in our editorial content.”

Anthony also believes that the independence of UK Plant Traders brings a degree of synergy to the joint venture. “DemolitionNews was built upon its independent stance, away from the influence of trade associations and with total editorial integrity,” he continues. “In addition to our mutual love of social media and reader/customer interaction, UK Plant Traders share that same independent mentality that is based on giving users what they want rather than what they have learned to accept.”

UK Plant Traders’ Michael Bell is similarly enthusiastic about the new joint venture. “Demolition is a key area of interest for UK Plant Traders. Demolition contractors are key providers and consumers of used equipment. And no-one has greater global access to this important market sector than DemolitionNews,” Bell says. “As a company, we have set ourselves aside from the competition, doing things our own way. And that is very much the ethos at DemolitionNews. I can’t wait to start working with them.”

AR Demolition publishes more stunning video footage from flyover contract.

Yesterday we brought you a film of AR Demolition’s controlled dismemberment of the Belgrave flyover in the heart of Leicester. The film quickly leapt to the top of our most-viewed item of the day and is still racking up views today.

But little did we realise that this film was merely a compilation of several other, equally stunning films including time-lapse and drone footage. Well, the good folks at AR Demolition have now granted us access to this veritable treasure trove of video goodness and we’re delighted to share those other films with you:

Please be on the lookout for a multiprocessor and full set of jaws stolen from a site in Scunthorpe.

Readers are asked to be on the lookout for a 2012 model Northerntrack MK20 multi-kit processor – Serial number V1153 – that was stolen from a site in Scunthorpe yesterday.

Also stolen was a full set of jaws as detailed below:

• MK20 Pulveriser jaw set, Serial number V1154
• MK20 Steel jaw set, Serial number V1155
• MK20 Plate shear jaw set, Serial number V1156

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of this attachment should contact Andy Hair at Northerntrack on Tel: (UK) 0113 2762 300