Mile Cross costs escalate…

September 6, 2018 General

Contamination drives up demolition costs at Norwich site.

Demolishing Norwich’s Mile Cross depot, to make way for hundreds of new homes, will cost almost £2m – because the site is so contaminated, council bosses have revealed.

Councillors will next week be asked to agree to make £1.98 millon available for works at the site, where investigations found chemical contaminants such as asbestos, along with low levels of ground gas.

Demolition of buildings at the 10.5 acre site, off Mile Cross Road, would cost an estimated £700,000, but a contamination specialist said a further £1.2m would need to be go on decontamination.

Not all would come from City Hall’s coffers. The government has made nearly £1m available through a grant, which the council has to match fund.

The council has applied to its own planning committee for demolition permission and the ruling Labour cabinet will decide next Wednesday whether to agree the budget for the demolition.

Read more here.

Ireland’s most expensive house faces demolition…

September 6, 2018 General

Country’s most expensive house to make way for larger mansion.

A trust linked to billionaire Dermot Desmond has secured planning permission to demolish a house on Dublin’s Shrewsbury Road, which remains the most expensive residence ever sold in the State at €58 million, and construct a 1,600 square metre mansion in its place.

Three previous applications to knock down and replace Walford were rejected by planners but Mr Desmond’s Celtic Trustees Ltd has been given the green light to do so. The house, located on a on a 1.77 acre site in Ballsbridge, was built in 1902 and has fallen into disrepair in recent times.

The Desmond linked trust paid €14.25 million for Walford in December 2016 and the planning permission granted allows the development of a property almost three times larger than the existing 553 square metre house.

Desmond, the largest shareholder in Celtic football club in Glasgow, has recruited former Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winner Marcus Barnett to oversee the creation of a private garden. Other features listed in the application include a subterranean swimming pool, a gym, a cellar, a games room and a staff bedroom looking out onto a sunken courtyard.

Read more here.

Demolition magazine breaks all records…

September 4, 2018 General

If you hear a loud thump, that will be the new Demolition mag hitting the doorstep.

Ever since it first topped the 100-page mark, the Demolition magazine has been growing progressively larger with each passing edition.

The latest edition – the Lilac Wine issue – retains that trend, delivering a massive 130 pages of demolition coverage that needs to be seen to be believed.

Included in the new issue is:

And a whole lot more.

You can read each article using the links above, or you can simply dive into the full electronic edition below:

London estates face the axe…

September 3, 2018 General

Dozens of council housing estates in London slated for demolition and redevelopment.

The BBC is reporting that more than 31,000 residents will be affected if plans go ahead to regenerate some 118 sites across the capital. While those moves are being seen as encroaching upon social housing and another example of gentrification, the full or partial demolition of more than 100 council estates will surely be welcomed by the UK demolition industry.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has told councils they must now ballot residents on regeneration plans to secure City Hall funding.

Of the estates to be regenerated, more than 80 will be fully or partially demolished, according to council responses to a BBC freedom of information request.

One of the sites set to see the biggest loss of homes is the Heygate estate in Southwark.

More than 1,200 council properties were torn down between 2011 and 2014 and replaced by a luxury development called Elephant Park.

In Westminster, the city council plans to flatten 300 homes at the Ebury Bridge estate in Pimlico to make way for 750 new properties, the majority of which will be sold on the private market.

Read the full story here.

Contract Awards – Coleman & Company bag gasholder…

August 31, 2018 Contract Award

Birmingham-based contractor picks up Southall contract.

DemolitionNews understands that Birmingham-based Coleman & Company has been awarded the contract to dismantle Gas Holder Number 1 at The Straight, Southall.

The contract is believed to have a 29-week duration and to be valued in the region of £2.5 million. The client is National Grid.

The Southall contract is the latest in a number of gasholder dismantling and demolition jobs won by Coleman & Company in recent years. Long-term readers might recall that DemolitionNews reported on the dismantling of an MAN gasholder in St Helens back in 2011.

This contract award is brought to you in conjunction with Serino from The Builders’ Conference.

Video – Meredosia bridge blasted…

August 30, 2018 Bridge, implosion, Video

82-year old bridge sent to bottom of Illinois River.

The old Illinois 104 bridge that crosses the Illinois River at Meredosia was imploded yesterday morning.

Despite heavy rain that ended about 90 minutes before the blast, the entire procedure went as planned, according to John Sestak, a construction field engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation.

“It pretty much looks just like they drew it up on paper,” said Sestak as he surveyed the fallen pieces of steel protruding above the river surface. “A structural engineer analyzed where the cuts should be based on how much weight the cranes are capable of picking up out of the water. Then they placed the charges accordingly.

“The charges are made of explosives and copper, so when the explosive goes off it melts the copper and accelerates it and the copper is actually what cuts through the steel, like a welding torch,” Sestak said. “They box the charges in and wrap them in rubber to try and limit the amount of shrapnel that is blown away.”

The Illinois River was to be closed to water traffic for 24 hours to give crews enough time to clear the debris. The new alignment of Illinois 104, including the new $86.2 million bridge, also was closed for safety immediately before and after the demolition charges were detonated

Exclusive – Messiah goes for shear scale…

August 30, 2018 Equipment

Massive Genesis shear is UK-bound.

DemolitionNews has obtained an exclusive photo that shows a massive Genesis GXP 2500R shear being loaded onto a UK-bound ship on the first leg of its journey Essex and high reach excavator hirer Messiah Corporation.

Messiah claims that the 24.49 tonne shear will be the largest in the UK; and the attachment – the largest in the Genesis XP range – is certainly huge. It boasts a jaw opening of 1.17 metres and a jaw depth of 1.21 metres.

DemolitionNews understands that the unit will ultimately be boom-mounted to deliver optimum power. According to Genesis’ specifications, that will require a carrier of 109 tonnes or more.

New owner Messiah has previously operated a Hitachi EX1200 which would fit the bill. But the company today specialises in the hire of Caterpillar high reach machines; so a Cat 6015B might be a more likely candidate.

Jobs – Rye is recruiting…

August 30, 2018 General

Award-winning contractor recruiting across the board.

Fresh from picking up a coveted award at the inaugural British Demolition Awards, Hertfordshire-based Rye Demolition has hit he recruitment trail.

The company has vacancies for the following:

  • Senior commercial manager
  • Development manager
  • Senior estimator
  • Class 1&2 drivers

Great packages available

Contact:  S.barlow@ryedemolition.co.uk

Rye Demolition Ltd has an enviable reputation for delivering quality, professionalism and value on all its projects and demands the highest standards with the emphasis on Health and Safety and the Environment. With its proven capabilities working on large or small contracts our proactive approach provides a commitment to ensure contracts are finished on time and within budget.

Competition – So you want to be Insta-famous…?

August 29, 2018 Competition, Video

Competition will give winners unrivalled access to DemolitionNews’ global audience.

At some point in the next few weeks, DemolitionNews’ Instagram account will hit the astonishing 30,000 followers mark.

Now we could pat ourselves on the back for becoming the world’s largest demolition-dedicated feed on the platform. We could bask in the glory of having taken our following from less than 10,000 to 30,000 since the beginning of the year.

But the truth is – aside from posting some photos and videos – we haven’t really done anything. It is our audience that have followed us, liked our content and engaged with us. And so, in an attempt to give something back to the people that put us in this position, we are running a competition that will hopefully help make a few of them as Insta-famous as we are….well, almost.

Full details in the video below.

Comment – Enforce AND Endorse…

August 28, 2018 Comment

The relationship between the HSE and the demolition industry should be a two-way street.

During my time as the publicity officer of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors, I was the co-author of no less than four sets of industry guidance notes. I was co-author on both the original and the updated edition of the guidance notes on the safe use of high reach excavators; on the guidance on the safe use of mobile crushers in a demolition environment; and on the guidance on the deconstruction of tower blocks, or the top-down guidance as most people now know it.

Each time we produced a new set of guidance notes, they were shared with the Health and Safety Executive prior to publication. And each time, the response was exactly the same.

The HSE thanked the NFDC for their time, effort, investment and diligence. They welcomed each new publication as a significant contribution to safety in the demolition arena. They gave each new publication an unequivocal thumbs-up. And then they flatly refused to endorse all of them.

The relationship between the demolition industry and the Health and Safety Executive has always been a little fractious. And – traditionally, at least – with good reason.

In years gone by, the demolition industry had proved itself to be a dangerous place in which to work. Accidents were frequent, and fatalities were far too common. The industry of old thoroughly deserved to be high on the HSE watch-list.

But times have changed. With one or two notable exceptions, the UK demolition industry’s health and safety track record continues to improve year-on-year. Accident levels generally fall with each passing year. Fatalities are at an all-time low.

Compared to allied industries such as construction, refurbishment, and the waste and recycling sectors, demolition is a paragon of health and safety good practice. There was even talk a few years back about a policy of earned autonomy in which industries that demonstrated a true commitment to health and safety best practice would be inspected less and would be allowed to – partially, at least – police themselves.

That would have been great for the UK demolition industry which has clearly demonstrated just such a commitment. It would have been great for the HSE which has seen inspector numbers in seemingly terminal decline.

And then came the Fee for Intervention. Suddenly, a visit to a demolition site provided the HSE with the ability to generate some much-needed revenue. And rather than becoming self-policing, demolition seemingly moved back to the top of the HSE’s hit-list.

Rather than a carrot and stick approach, the HSE seems to have eaten the carrot and adopted an all stick approach in which it would prefer to punish rather than encourage.

For decades, the UK demolition industry has put to shame the allied industries around it with its forward-thinking approach to the environment and to safety. It has put its money where its mouth is, creating training courses at all levels of the industry; backing those courses with competence cards; reinforcing that training with published guidance notes.

Now I am not suggesting for once second that the HSE should stop policing the UK demolition industry. Nor am I suggesting that a policy of earned autonomy would be a good idea for the whole demolition industry.

What I am saying is that when a demolition company goes above and beyond regulations to ensure the safety of its workforce and of those living or working around them, that their accomplishments should be recognised and applauded.

Ultimately what I am saying is that the relationship between the HSE and the UK demolition industry should be a two-way street.

And if the HSE wants to enforce, then surely it should also be willing to endorse.

An extended version of this article is available as an audio podcast that you can listen to here.