Tower that lay dormant since 1969 finally gives way to progress.

NASA has demolished a 239-foot-tall structure that engineers once used to test rocket engines that sent astronauts to the moon, toppling it with explosives on Friday despite reservations from state history officials who wanted it preserved.

Contractors working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration took down the remaining concrete towers of Test Stand 4696 at Redstone Arsenal, home of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

The tower was built in the early 1960s to test F-1 engines, which helped power Saturn V rockets to the moon. Documents show the tower hadn’t been used for an F-1 test since February 1969, five months before astronauts first landed on the lunar surface.

NASA said it needed to demolish the concrete-and-steel tower to save on maintenance costs and make way for a new structure for testing rocket engines.

House built in middle of highway finally demolished.

A Chinese house that became an internet sensation after being left in the middle of new highway because its elderly owners refused to move out has been demolished.

Photographs of the house went viral on China’s social media websites last month after 67 year-old duck farmer Luo Baogen and his wife refused to sign an agreement allowing it to be demolished. This resulted in authorities building a planned road around the building. As the images spread around the world, the five-storey building became a symbol of protest against forced property demolitions, one of China’s most pressing social issues.

Luo voluntarily agreed to leave his home for 260,000 yuan (£26,058) in compensation, said Chen Xuecai, the chief of Xiayangzhang village, Wenling city, in the coastal Zhejiang province. “Luo Baogen received dozens of people from the media every day and his house stands in the centre of the road. So he decided to demolish the house,” Chen added.

Read more here or view the video below:

Stunning video captures the challenges of a three-month waterfront demolition project.

We just happened upon this brilliant video that captures the demanding demolition of San Francisco’s Pier 36 earlier this year.

Built in 1909, the original pier spanned two acres, comprised 18,500 tonnes of concrete and steel, and featured 437 concrete caissons.

Among the key challenges facing the demolition crew was ensuring that demolition debris didn’t fall into the Bay; a feat achieved by some very innovative equipment use.

Families watch as homes are demolished in wake of nearby explosion.

Work is underway to demolish the Richmond Hill homes heavily damaged in the explosion on 10 November.

Initial reports from accident investigators suggest that the explosion was caused deliberately.

Unseen concrete deterioration sees panel section hit Grand River.

Adamo Demolition crews have halted work on the back of the Riverwalk Plaza Hotel in Jackson, Missouri due to a mishap Wednesday when parts of a concrete panel fell into the Grand River.

Work is expected to start again next week, but with a different piece of equipment.

Jackson County Facilities Director Ric Scheele said a high-lift crane will be used to tear down the panel, which will hopefully prevent it from going into the river. He estimates that each panel weighs anywhere between 8,000 to 10,000 pounds.

Read more here.

Total Dismantling falls foul of asbestos notification regs.

A demolition company from Swampscott has been ordered to pay the Commonwealth $100,000 in civil penalties for the alleged improper removal and disposal of asbestos-containing waste at locations throughout eastern Massachusetts, including the Hook Lobster Company building on the Boston waterfront, Attorney General Martha Coakley announced today.

According to the complaint, Total Dismantling and Carting Services, Inc., and its successor, The Total Group, Inc., both of Swampscott, violated the state’s Clean Air Act by repeatedly removing and disposing of asbestos-containing material without notifying the Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) that the work was going to occur.

The complaint also alleges that Total Dismantling and Carting Services and Removal Specialists demolished the former Hook Lobster Building in 2008 after it burned in a fire without removing all of the asbestos-containing material first and without notifying MassDEP that it was going to perform the work.

The consent judgment, approved in Suffolk Superior Court today, requires Total Dismantling and Carting Services Inc., and the Total Group to pay a civil penalty of $100,000 for their share of the violations involving the Hook site as well as violations at three other demolition sites in Saugus, Malden and Swampscott. Half of that amount in the settlement is suspended provided the companies comply with the judgment and commit no further violations during a 5-year probationary period.

Read more here.

Long, laborious dismantling ahead for North Yorkshire homes hit my landslip.

Work to demolish a row of cottages overlooking an historic North Yorkshire harbour after a landslide left them in danger of collapse will be “a long, laborious task”, according to engineers.

Preparatory work began yesterday to knock down five homes in Whitby, which are precariously balanced above the River Esk.

But contractors said it will almost certainly be this afternoon now before the buildings themselves come down.

The gardens and patios in front of the 150-year-old terrace slid 10 metresw down towards the harbour in the early hours of Tuesday. And the slope has continued to move since, with a block of rock and earth the size of a minibus crashing into the next row of houses down.

Scarborough Council says it has been left with no choice but to demolish the five former Whitby jet workers’ cottages.

“There’ll be a man going up in a man-riding basket with a bucket and a hammer,” says councillor Mike Cockerill of Scarborough Council. “Basically he’ll be knocking it down brick-by-brick. It’s going to be a long, laborious task.”

Read more here.

Owner applies for permission to tear down home that briefly housed presidential assassin.

Today, the former homes of murderers and sex offenders are routinely demolished in the hope of providing victims’ families with a degree of closure and in the possibly vain hope of eliminating any last vestiges of residual evil.

So it is remarkable to find still standing a house which was once home to a man whose purportedly lone actions on a fateful day on 22 November 1963 possibly changed the course of US and world history.

But the house in which Lee Harvey Oswald – the killer of US president John F Kennedy – lived briefly between 1962 and 1963 is soon to be no more, as its current owner – Jane Bryant – has applied for permission to demolish it.

Jane Bryant said she hopes to hire a demolition contractor soon and is trying to salvage and sell the building’s hundreds of bricks in the meantime.

The building has been boarded up and the site surrounded by a chain-link fence for years.

Read more here.

No injuries reported as yet another excavator winds up in the basement.

I’m not saying I would be rich but if I had a pound for every time a demolition excavator finds itself half-buried in an unforeseen basement or underground void, Demolition News Towers would have long since relocated to Barbados and each post would come with a faint whiff of rum and coconut.

And so the report of yet another subterranean excavator will come as no surprise to anyone, with the possible exception of the operator who was stupid enough to park his machine in semi-vertical style in Illinois earlier today.

Thankfully, no-one was hurt in this latest incident; the machine was righted and work recommenced soon after the incident.

Read more here.

Investigations ongoing as crews gear up for demolition.

An Indianapolis neighborhood that was ravaged by an explosion that killed a young couple is gearing up for the first of dozens of demolitions as investigators continue to search for answers about the blast.

Homeowners in the Richmond Hill subdivision needed to request demolition permits by Monday, and city officials said work to raze damaged homes could start as early as Tuesday.

Building inspectors last week ordered the demolition of 29 houses by Dec. 20. Four other homes, including two that were leveled in the Nov. 10 explosion, are being maintained as police investigate what they believe was an intentional natural gas explosion.

Jennifer and John Longworth, who lived next door to the house believed to be the epicenter of the blast, were killed.

Investigators say they have questioned numerous people but have been tight-lipped about the investigation. No arrests have been made.

While the houses at the heart of the blast are being maintained, other property owners have been notified of the need to obtain the $159 demolition permits by email, in person or through notices posted on their properties.

Read more here.