Up-close footage of high reach excavator in action.

As the post-quake clean-up operations continue in New Zealand, Nikau Contractors’ latest job was to get to grips with the former Press building, as this rain-drenched footage shows:

Your chance to win THREE attachment-branded USB flash drives.

During last week’s visit to the Institute of Demolition Engineers‘ Spring seminar at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, I managed to collect no less than three credit card-style, attachment branded USB flash drives including one from Rammer, one from ECY Haulmark/Furukawa Rock Drills, and one from European Attachments Group.

And I’d like to give them all away to one lucky and memory-hungry individual.

To win the set of three – together, there’s gigabytes of wallet-sized memory here – there are no clever questions and no treasure hunts.

Just click here to be taken you our Facebook page and hit the Like button; that’s it.

The winner will be chosen at random from the entries received. We will run the competition for a week (and announce the winner on Monday 11 March.

Worker seriously hurt after elevator shaft fall.

A 20-year-old demolition worker was critically injured Thursday in a 15-foot fall in an elevator shaft in a downtown Omaha building.

The unidentified worker for Peitzmeier Demolition & Concrete Cutting Inc. was working on the main floor of the building on the southwest corner of 14th and Harney Streets about 11:45 a.m. when he stepped back and fell to the bottom of the elevator shaft, according to another Peitzmeier worker.

The injured man was taken in critical condition to Creighton University Medical Center after suffering injuries to his ribs and left hip in the fall at 1405 Harney Street, according to the fellow worker.

Read more here.

Shocking footage revealed as public inquiry is set to begin.

As the public inquiry into the Algo Mall collapse in Elliot Lake sets to begin on Monday, there are videos surfacing that show another collapse as the demolition crew tears the building down.

The Ministry of Labour was called in to investigate the incident but says the part of the building collapsed on top of an unmanned excavator, however the videos show someone running out from under the rubble.

The inquiry is expected to last several months and Justice Paul Belanger who will be overseeing it will have a year and a half to release his findings.

Read more here or view the video below:

Valerie Stroud quits after 10 years as the power behind the IDE throne.

The Institute of Demolition Engineers was rocked this afternoon with the news that Valerie Stroud – national secretary and the–day-today manager of the Institute – has resigned unexpectedly.

In a brief statement circulated to members, Stroud makes it clear that her position had become untenable after a meeting last week at which the IDE’s council of management discussed a succession plan for when she retires.

“Unfortunately at their meeting last Thursday the Council of Management made it plain that my work and commitment were of little value,” Stroud says. “As I have never been honoured with a Contract of Employment I am resigning with immediately [SIC] effect.”

With no obvious successor in place, Stroud’s departure will leave a gaping hole in the Institute. In addition to the usual duties of the national secretary, Stroud single-handedly ran the IDE’s Demolition Engineer magazine and the Institute’s website.

“We’re all a bit taken aback,” says IDE president Steve Jack. “We have been discussing a succession plan for Valerie for some time and I expected her to continue until my presidency comes to an end in 2014.”

El Paso smokestacks set to fall on 13 April.

Demolition crews on April 13 plan to bring down two towering smokestacks from the now-closed ASARCO copper smelter in West Texas.

About 50 people attended a public meeting Tuesday night in El Paso to hear from contractors and environmental officials.

Critics have raised public health and other pollution concerns with demolishing the 825-foot and 612-foot smokestacks at the site that closed in 1999.

Preservation efforts failed. The demolition is part of a $52 million remediation toward site redevelopment.

Read more here and here.

Fresh plans to partially demolish Hampton Court station rejected by local authority.

Elmbridge Borough Council’s north area planning sub-committee has rejected fresh plans to knock down parts of Hampton Court train station.

Gladedale Estates Ltd and Network Rail are seeking to redevelop the station and the former Jolly Boatman site next to it.

Under their proposals, a hotel, a care home and apartments will be built, while the station will be refurbished and a new transport interchange will be created.

As part of these plans, Gladedale and Network Rail have been looking to part demolish the existing gable entrance to the station building, as well as the single-storey addition to the station building comprising the platform level staff room and male toilets.

In addition, the companies have also been looking to demolish two existing platform canopies, a car sales building and low level boundary walls.

Elmbridge Borough Council originally gave the firms conservation area consent to undertake the demolition work at the station in 2009.

However, this consent expired in June last year and the companies had to submit a fresh conservation area application, which they did in December.

The borough council received more than 800 letters of objection regarding the new proposals.

During a meeting held at the Civic Centre in Esher last week, the authority’s north area planning sub-committee decided to reject the application.

Read more here.

Year-long time-lapse captures demolition and reconstruction of Australian cricket ground.

If you’re American, you are excused – There’s nothing for you to see here. If, however, you come from a country where the sound of leather on willow brings back idyllic memories of sunny afternoons, the do we have a treat for you.

In the cricket world, the Adelaide Oval is just about as close to hallowed turf as it is possible to find. And so the demolition and reconstruction of this world-famous sporting venue is a pretty big deal to anyone for whom baseball, basketball and “professional wrestling” are not considered a national sport.

And this video – shot over a 11-month period commencing in March 2012, captures both the demolition and the reconstruction of what will soon be restored to its former glory as a Mecca to cricket fans the world over:

Adelaide Oval Redevelopment March 2012 to Feb 2013 from Orange Lane Studios on Vimeo.

Footage captures final moments of Port Pirie radio tower.

With the rain trying desperately to turn into snow (again) outside the windows of Demolition News Towers, we welcome any excuse to look at blue skies. And we welcome them even more when the blue sky is a backdrop to a nice big radio antenna in its death throes.

Worker dead as roof collapses prematurely.

A demolition worker was killed yesterday after a roof prematurely collapsed at what was once a Kmart in Brigham City, Utah.

At about 3 p.m., a team of four demolition workers were on the roof preparing for a planned collapse.

The roof collapsed sooner than they expected, according to Box Elder News Journal Associate Editor Mike Nelson. The man killed in the incident had left the area for an unknown reason. Officials said he was found under the rubble.

“Three were on top of the roof, and one had left the roof for an unknown reason,” said Brigham City Fire Captain Mike Young. “When the roof came down, it was a bit premature that what the construction workers had initially planned.”

Read more here, or view the local news video below: