CDI’s Stacey Loizeaux gives an insight into next weekend’s blast.

About 400 pounds of dynamite will bring down the 18,800 tons of reinforced concrete, metal and other materials that make up the former City Hall, the demolition experts who will demolish the building said.

“The City Hall structure is a fairly new and structurally robust building that is actually much easier to implode than lesser, more deteriorated or damaged structures,” said Stacey S. Loizeaux, one of the members of the Loizeaux family’s Controlled Demolition Inc., the company contracted to tear down the 34-year-old building. “As a result, it’s really a fairly simple project from our perspective.”

The 10-storey building is scheduled to be torn down at 9 a.m. April 14, just one day after the Asarco smelter smokestacks are to be brought down — forever changing the El Paso skyline.

City Hall opened as the city’s headquarters in 1979, and its demolition is the final major step in clearing the 5.5-acre site to make way for a new Triple-A minor league baseball stadium.

The demolition of the former City Hall and the Insights El Paso Science Center, which was torn down in mid-March, is being handled by Grant Mackay Demolition Company under a $1.5 million contract with the city. The contract is part of the $50 million ballpark construction cost.

Controlled Demolition, subcontracted to implode the building, mobilized its preparation crews last week and will bring the implosion crew to El Paso this week, Loizeaux said.

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House where six children perished will be leveled.

Derby City Council plans to demolish the home of Mick and Mairead Philpott, where six children were killed in a fire started by the couple.

Mick Philpott, 56, was jailed for life on Wednesday after being convicted of manslaughter over the deaths of the children in the blaze last May.

His wife Mairead, 32, and friend Paul Mosley received 17-year sentences.

The council is attempting to take legal possession of the three-bedroomed semi-detached house, as well as of the adjoining one.

Council leader Paul Bayliss said: “Who would want to live in a house where six children have died and why would you want to live next door to a house where six children have died?”

The council wants residents in the area to decide what to do with the property, and an online petition has called for a memorial garden to be built on the site.

Read more here.

Liebherr R 954 C high reach gets to grips with Hamburg high-rise.

If there’s one thing we love here at Demolition News Towers, it’s a good high reach excavator action video. And this is a great example.

Shot last month in Hamburg, Germany, it shows a Liebherr R 954 C owned by Wilko Wagner taking down a commercial building.

Enjoy.

Demolition man hit with county-wide injunction.

Waste Management World is reporting that a businessman has been punished for repeatedly flouting planning rules at sites across Manchester.

Peter George Cordwell, of PGC Demolition, received a two-year injunction at the Manchester Civil Justice Centre in the case, brought by Rochdale council.

The order means he will have to seek planning permission for any future development on any site in the borough – and risks prison if he breaks the rules again.

The council has previously obtained interim injunctions against Cordwell, but he continued to breach various regulations.

The authority has now applied for the borough-wide injunction, which is tougher than standard planning law and carries a maximum £20,000 fine for breaches, or imprisonment. Cordwell will also have to pay the council’s legal costs.

The case was brought following a series of breaches of planning law, including the establishment of a waste disposal centre on Chichester Street, which was operating without planning permission.

The operation involved the dumping and processing of waste materials using noisy crushing equipment, which disturbed residents in neighbouring properties. Work to construct a property on land at Collop Gate Farm in Heywood, was also started without permission and eight industrial units were constructed at a site in Sparth, again without planning permission.

On both occasions, the council issued stop notices, but Cordwell, who is based in Heywood, breached them.

Read more here.

Administrative error could prove costly.

Friday’s opening of bids for the demolition of the closed downtown Lockport parking ramp featured an error that could cost the city $190,000, produce a lawsuit, or both.

Scott Lawn Yard of Sanborn submitted the lowest bid, $987,000, for demolition and replacement of the ramp with a 42-space surface parking lot on Main Street near Pine Street.

The problem was that Scott’s bid was handed in late, after a city employee allegedly told the Scott representative that the bid had to be presented at the Buffalo office of Conestoga-Rovers & Associates, the company that designed the project.

That was wrong information, and by the time the Scott employee returned from Buffalo, he had missed the 2 p.m. deadline.

“We were there at 1,” said Scott Lawn Yard co-owner Scott Miller. “We were in the right place. We were turned around by a secretary for the city.” Mayor Michael W. Tucker said it happened “upstairs,” meaning at an office on the second floor of City Hall. But he noted that Scott Lawn Yard has bid on several city contracts in the past and should know the procedure. The bid documents say the bids were to be delivered to City Hall.

“Very clearly, it says where the bids are going to be opened,” Tucker said. He said he would have to consult with Corporation Counsel John J. Ottaviano about the situation. Ottaviano did not return a call seeking comment.

Miller said he wanted to pursue the matter in some fashion.

Read more here.

Listing Bangkok apartment block likely to face wrecking ball.

A return to the drawing board appears to be the most likely course of action for the ill-fated Pathum Thani residential project as investigations continue into what caused the buildings to begin tilting. Construction work has already been halted and the labourers have gone home.

Don Muang Grand Plaza Co Ltd has so far invested 70 million baht to build two apartment blocks with 132 rooms in each, located behind Zeer Rangsit Mall in Lam Luk Ka. Zeer Rangsit Mall owns the property.

“There is an 80% chance that we will destroy the building and rebuild again,” the company said in a statement after a meeting with residents from the nearby Pummarin housing estate on Thursday.

“But we can’t confirm what we are going to do with the building at the moment. We are still looking into the problem and considering the best solution,” the statement said, adding they would announce their decision today.

Ku Kot municipality issued an evacuation order for the area on Monday, after police started receiving reports from local residents on Sunday that one of the towers was collapsing. Work was immediately suspended and labourers evacuated from the construction site.

Thanes Weerasiri – secretary-general of the Engineering Institute of Thailand and a lecturer at Thammasat University and an expert on building collapses – has dismissed reports that the building had collapsed due to ground instability caused by the 2011 floods or it being built on a drained pond. The building has a six degree lean on the northern side.

“No one can really tell what caused the building to tilt because no one can go into the area to conduct a detailed examination to determine the reason for collapse,” Thanes said. “The whole area is too sensitive and we don’t want to do anything to make it worse. After an initial inspections on Monday, Mr Thanes said he had three theories on what caused the collapse: the condition of the soil, the position of the foundation piles and the size of the foundation piles and their placement. Both buildings have the foundation piles 21m underground as required by law,” he said. “Therefore, the buildings should be able to stay up without collapsing.”

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Late mob boss ordered hit on demolition man Edward Garofalo.

In a court case that could have been lifted from an episode of The Sopranos, a reputed Gambino crime-family associate has been charged with taking part in the last rubout believed ordered by the late mob boss John Gotti.

Ex-con Daniel Fama, 48, was allegedly part of the hit team that gunned down demolition contractor Edward Garofalo in August 1990 outside his home in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn.

Fama’s murder indictment says Garofalo, known as “Eddie the Chink,” was killed to keep him from cooperating with authorities.

The Manhattan federal court filing also says that the slaying was orchestrated by Gotti henchman Salvatore “Sammy Bull” Gravano, who infamously turned rat and helped convict the “Dapper Don,” who later died in prison.

Read more here.

Explosives remove remaining bridge piers.

Contractors imploded two remaining piers of the old US 281 bridge at 2:03 pm Friday.

North-south traffic on the highway, heavy with weekend travellers, was blocked about eight minutes resulting in a heavy backup north in both directions and on RR 2147.

There were no immediate reports of damage to surrounding structures as occurred when the old bridge itself was imploded March 17, raining debris on nearby buildings, severing communications lines, and snarling traffic for more than two hours.

A few dozen onlookers gathered at Lakeside park and construction workers and some residents nearby watched the removal of the last vestiges of the old bridge.

When the blast was announced with a sharp bang, a geyser of water erupted from Lake Marble Falls and soared higher than the replacement span now carrying vehicles over the water. It appeared hat most of the old piers had been removed above the surface of the lake with explosive charges placed on what remained below.

Read more here, or view the video below:

Companies fall foul of asbestos regulations during demolition of steel plant.

A Jefferson County judge ordered that several companies pay an $850,000 fine because of violations that caused asbestos contamination during the demolition of the former Weirton Steel facility in Steubenville.

Arthur David Sugar, Sr.; David Sugar Excavating, LLC; Honey Creek Contracting, Inc.; Excavation Technologies Inc.; and ADS Leasing pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and four counts of violating the Clean Air Act rules related to the proper removal and handling of asbestos.

“Asbestos is widely known to be a dangerous, cancer-causing material which must be abated in any demolition,” said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. “The aggressive penalty issued against the defendants in this case shows that endangering Ohioans by failing to properly manage asbestos will not be tolerated.”

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Irony as leaky county hall is demolished by a company called Walters!

Contractors Walters Demolition moved on to the site in January and began preliminary works on the building, prior to demolition. Now, works have started on the demolition of the debating chamber and associated structures, which will continue until the end of the month.

Between May and June, the civic offices will be knocked down.

County Hall, in Croesyceiliog – most recently shared by Monmouthshire and Torfaen councils – closed last year because the building has ‘concrete cancer’.

With rain penetrating the cladding and rusting steel supports, it would have cost £30million to repair. Further to this, a disused nuclear shelter built on the site created a void in the ground underneath.

Read more here.