Man of cloth puts faith in men of high vis and hard hats.

Normally, when men of the cloth look to the heavens, it is for a sign; an answer to a prayer; or for divine intervention. But Bishop of Brechin, the Rt Reverend Nigel Peyton, is gazing upwards for a very different reason.

Dundee’s Derby Street multis are scheduled to be blown down by explosive demolition experts Safedem next month and St Martin’s Church – which fills most of the 70 metres between them – will hopefully be left standing.

At 22 storeys high, Butterburn and Bucklemaker Courts have towered over the Episcopal church for almost 40 years but after June 30 only the place of worship should be on the site.

“We have faith in the contractors,” says Reverend Nigel Peyton. “They are very experienced and have explained very fully what they are going to do. We have been working closely with Safedem and departments of the council and we have been assured they will do all they can to protect the church, as they would any property in a project like this.”

Precious and vulnerable church fittings will be protected from the risk of falling masonry and also from dust and alternative arrangements are being made for worship on the day.

The implosion is scheduled for 30 June.

Read more here.

…with all the trimmings.

At the time of writing, police are facing down thousands of protestors intent on halting the demolition of Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park. At least that’s what we’re told the protests are over.

However, having watched this video, we’re starting to wonder if the protests were actually started by bucket manufacturers or health and safety activists.

Extensive works to spearhead town overhaul.

Vital demolition works are being planned in the Northampton Enterprise Zone. Once completed, they will pave the way for a flagship office development at St Peter’s Waterside.

Covering a stretch of brownfield land between the River Nene and St Peter’s Way, the site has been acquired by WNDC. It has applied to Northampton Borough Council to demolish all of the properties it owns there, including 10 houses and 5 business premises.

With the current occupiers ready to relocate, demolition of the houses could start this summer, followed by the commercial units in autumn.

Peter Mawson, WNDC’s Chief Executive said: “Since this area was identified as a regeneration priority, we have been helping the various occupiers to start afresh in better locations. That process is almost complete and the transformation of St Peter’s Waterside can move ahead.

“The site has huge potential, overlooking the River Nene, as well as the new and improved railway station, which will start construction this year. The demolition works are an exciting step in our plans and they will signal a new beginning for Northampton’s Waterside.”

Cllr David Mackintosh, leader of Northampton Borough Council, said: “This is an important milestone in the development of Northampton town centre. St Peter’s Waterside is a fundamental element of the Enterprise Zone and will address a shortfall in quality office space available in Northampton.

Read more here.

Contractor fined after worker becomes trapped in crusher.

A 33-year-old plant operator at Coleman and Company’s site in Meriden, Warwickshire, was hurt when his right arm was drawn in between the rollers and conveyor belt.

The worker, from West Bromwich, suffered fractures to his right arm along with wrist injuries and bruising. He later needed several skin grafts in hospital and has yet to return to work.

Solihull Magistrates’ Court heard today (30 May) that without the swift reaction of his colleagues, who ran to his aid to stop the machine, the injured worker could have lost his life.

The incident, on 8 November 2012, at the company’s site in Cornetts End Lane, was investigated by Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which prosecuted Coleman and Company for two separate breaches of safety legislation.

HSE found the incident could have been prevented had the company noticed that the machine’s fixed guards had been either removed or lost, and had taken steps to replace them.

Coleman and Company Ltd of Shady Lane, Great Barr, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and section 11(1) of The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and was fined £3,500 and ordered to pay £1,114 in costs.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Karl Raw said: “This was an avoidable incident involving a dangerous piece of equipment which is designed to crush concrete. As such, the consequences of a person coming into contact with moving parts of the machine can be severe. The worker involved was very fortunate not to have suffered even more serious injuries. Coleman and Company exposed workers to serious risk by failing to ensure that the workers were protected from dangerous moving parts of the machine by suitable guarding mechanisms. In addition, the company should have had a system of monitoring in place to identify if guards were missing, defective or inadequate.”

Seemingly innoccuous high reach demolition results in catastrophic collapse.

It’s a gorgeous spring day. The sky is blue, the clouds are fluffy and white, and a high reach excavator is going about its business in a slow, considered and workmanlike fashion. For those that work in the demolition field, it is nothing they haven’t seen a hundred or even a thousand times.

But stick with it (or fast forward) to the 5.30 mark – It’s a long wait until the final pay-off but believe me, it’s worth it.

Local councillor decries illegal demolition that was actually a gas disconnection.

Local councillors. Don’t you just love them? They are a fine band of well-read and highly educated men and women who take on a thankless task with their egos firmly in check and with no personal ambition beyond serving their local community. And, as such, they have eyes and ears everywhere and a finger locked firmly on the pulse of local events and local feeling.

Which, presumably, is why Lewisham councillor Liam Curran took to Twitter to decry the “illegal demolition” of The Porcupine pub on his patch with the highly erudite: “Unlawful demolition of Porcupine pub has begun! Plsestopit!” Now there’s a man that has truly benefited from a good education.

Of course, when a local councillor objects to an “illegal demolition”, it sets in train an unstoppable machine. And so an environment officer was despatched post-haste to the disused pub to call a halt to the unlawful dismantling.

However, it turns out that the “unlawful demolition” was, in fact, merely the gas company disconnecting the utility service.

I am certain the residents of Lewisham will be delighted that their learned local councillor is now utilising costly human resources based on nothing more than misleading and innaccurate social media rumour and speculation.

Read more here.

Row erupts over parking ramp bidding process.

State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. on Thursday ordered a hearing on how the bidding for the demolition of Lockport’s downtown parking ramp was botched April 5.

Kloch accused the attorney for the city of costing taxpayers $190,000 through a pedantic reading of the law on competitive bidding.

The city rejected a bid from Scott Lawn Yard of Sanborn because it was delivered about 40 minutes after the 2 p.m. deadline April 5. The Common Council, on the advice of Corporation Counsel John J. Ottaviano, awarded the contract April 10 to Empire Dismantlement of Grand Island for $1,177,000.

Scott Lawn obtained a temporary restraining order to block work, claiming that a city employee told its courier to take his bid, not to City Hall as the bid documents directed, but to the downtown Buffalo office of Conestoga-Rovers & Associates, the engineering firm that designed the work.

By the time Scott Lawn employee Christopher Juliano made it back to City Hall, he had missed the deadline. But two CRA engineers at City Hall opened his bid anyway and found it was the lowest.

“I’m really confused,” Kloch told Ottaviano in court Thursday. “All you have to do is nothing, and you save the City of Lockport $190,000, or – I figured it out – $9 for every man, woman and child in Lockport.”

Read more here.

Turkey has the potential to be a demolition Klondyke, but it will not be easily won.

Turkey has slowly risen through the ranks of developing countries to become one of the most eagerly anticipated demolition gold rush regions in the world. Indeed, only last year a conference dedicated to Turkish demolition potential attracted delegates and speakers from across the globe.

But the latest round of anti-demolition protests in Istanbul will serve as a wake-up call that has been regarding the country with envious eyes.

Local demonstrators and a number of parliamentary deputies partially blocked the demolition of the last green public space in the center of Istanbul on May 28, despite police forces again resorting to tear gas to disperse the group. The struggle eventually transformed into a night-long sit-in protest by the demonstrators.

Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Istanbul deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder helped halt an operation to remove trees in Taksim Gezi Park when he obstructed the path of a bulldozer, amid running altercations between demonstrators on one side and police and company workers on the other. Önder demanded the license for the demolition, which was not provided by municipality workers.

Police pulled out of the area as dusk set, allowing around 1,000 protesters to stage a mini-festival during which they vowed that the park would not be turned over to “land speculators.” A group of protesters said they planned to stand guard at the site all night long to prevent any night-time demolition.

Read more here or view the video below.

Your video guide through the emissions legislation minefield.

Across the equipment sector, engine manufacturers are working to make engines cleaner and more efficient in order to comply with European Tier IIIb and US Stage 4 regulations.

But this process is littered with complex technical descriptions and confusing acronyms (does anybody really know a DPF from a DOC or an EGR from an SCR?)

To help you find your way through the emissions legislation minefield, we got together with one of the boffins at Kubota to produce a simple guide on everything you ever wanted to know about Tier IIIb but were afraid to ask.

Huge logging crane reaches the end of the line…literally.

We have all seen footage of structures being pulled or pushed down. But we don’t recall ever seeing one when the push was simply to start the wheels in motion before the structure’s own momentum would slide it along before gravity took hold.

So we were particularly fascinated by this video that captures the final moments in the life of a massive overhead logging train. Watch as a pair of machines push the crane towards the end of the tracks upon which it runs, before retiring to a safe distance to watch as the crane topples and falls.